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By Chris Richardson • HNIB News
Every kid in Massachusetts who has ever laced up their skates on a local frozen pond has dreamed of getting a chance to play on the TD Garden ice. To be playing for a state championship in a rematch of last season's contenders on that ice--definitely something neither team will soon forget.
And Canton will surely never forget as they secured a place in the history books winning the program's first-ever state title by a score of 4-2 over the defending champion Newburyport Clippers who ousted them a year ago in the very same title game, taking a 4-3 overtime win.
As he has played all season long, senior Jon Donaruma turned in a sparkling final appearance as a high school goaltender only surrendering two goals to the Division 2 North champions on the big stage.
Promising freshman forward Nick O'Connor scored the first goal of the game for the Bulldogs with assists from Frank Eckler, who won the south final game in the shootout, and Kevin Rooney. O'Connor gobbled up a loose puck to the left of Clippers goaltender Anthony Federico and lifted it over the pone netminder.
Newburyport's Derek Freeman knotted the game up at 1-1 later in the first period with a tally of his own. The senior forward exploded down the left wing, swooped in on Donaruma and tucked home a backhander.
Freeman's goal was erased by a Greg Boyd score less than a minute later, to put Canton ahead 2-1 at the end of the first. Boyd took a nice cross-ice feed from Kyle Leavitt as the two broke in two-on-one, moved in and buried a backhander.
The eventual game winning goal came off the stick of freshman Mike Denehy. Right off a faceoff to Federico's left, Matt Malloy fired a shot on goal. During the ensuing scramble, Denehy was able to find the puck in the crease and poke it home to make the score 3-1.
Newburyport refused to go away, though, and again closed to within one goal before the end of the second period. Freeman would score this goal as well, burying a well-placed wrist shot to the far corner with 54.2 seconds left in the frame.
The goal gave life to the Clippers as they headed to intermission, hoping that the third period would be theirs.
The Clippers certainly made the game interesting though, bearing down in the third period and pushing Canton to the limit. Their desperation, however, was extinguished by the smooth play of Donaruma in net, and completely erased once Kevin Rooney sent home an empty netter with the Clippers trying for the equalizer with the extra attacker.
Newburyport head coach Paul Yameen acknowledged that Canton is a "class hockey team and deserved to win the game," despite knowing how close his squad was to becoming repeat state champions.
No Bulldog may have been quite as excited as junior forward Rooney, who found his name on the score-sheet multiple times in this year's tournament. The Hockomock League MVP was quoted as saying that he was very excited and honored to be able to help the team record its first title victory ever. He also mentioned that his team now has "bragging rights" which they will have quite some time to exercise, that is, until next winter when the slate is cleaned and a new tournament race begins again.
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