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Hayes two goals keep Central in Super 8 hunt

Wednesday, February, 22 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — It turned out that the one period in which Central Catholic was outplayed last night also proved to be the catalyst the Raiders needed to close out the regular season with a victory.

Trailing by a pair of goals until late in the second, Central used a couple of power-play scores to rally and defeat Acton-Boxborough 3-2 in a MVC/Dual County finale at the Valley Forum.

It was a victory the Raiders absolutely needed for any chance of earning a second straight berth in the Super 8 tournament field that will be decided on Saturday.

“We definitely needed to win this,” said sophomore forward Lloyd Hayes, who connected on a pair of unassisted goals — the first igniting the Raiders and the second proving to be the game winner. “It meant everything. We’ve been working all year for the Super 8, and that’s what we wanted out of this game.

Trailing 2-0, Central (12-3-5 overall, 9-2-2 league) was stagnant through much of the second period as the Raiders managed only one shot on goal the first 9:12 of the frame. But Hayes proved the spark with 4 seconds left in a power play, muscling the puck out of the corners and scoring on a wrister while crossing in front of the net.

“We needed that,” said Hayes, who had his third two-goal game of the season and now has scored five in the past six games. We were getting down. We were kind of getting low, but once we got that first one we picked it up. It gave us a mental lift.”

A short 43 seconds later, Central got the tying score on another power play opportunity when Ryan Daigle took a pass from Mike Kelleher and slammed a goal home past Acton goalie Erik Wurman.

Hayes provided the go-ahead goal 37 seconds into the third when after robbing a Colonial defenseman in the left circle and scoring on a wrister.

From there it was up to senior goalie Kyle Williams, who repeatedly came up big the final 7 minutes against Acton-Boxborough (10-8-2, 7-7) shooters.

“It was win or out (of the Super 8),” Williams said. “And we came in with that mentality. When we were two down weren’t feeling so well, but we pulled together and came back. We had a lot to lose and (the Colonials) knew that.”

Central has outscored A-B 31-8 while winning each of the past seven matches between the two and 45-14 while going 10-0-1 since the start of the 2007-08 season.

“In the second period they played a lot better than us, but we had those power play goals that gave us the advantage,” Central coach Mike Jankowski said. “They owned the second ... but this is what it’s all been down the stretch is one goal games.”