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Central regroups against Andover

Saturday, February, 10 By Jeff Hamrick
Correspondent

SALEM - Rebounding from its first loss of the season two nights earlier, Central Catholic not only got back on track Saturday evening, but also showed the weapons that have the Raiders ranked tops in the state.

After scoring three times in the final seven minutes of the first period, Central held off an Andover rally for a 4-2 victory at the Salem Icenter.

"The whole team, I thought, had a good mentality and good attitude about it," said junior center Noah Jankowski, who had a goal and an assist. "Coach (Kim Brandvold) stressed to go back to our game because I think we got away from it. I think we were really trying to make a statement tonight.

"We're proving to ourselves we're a lot better than we were Thursday night (in a 1-0 loss to Waltham). Things happen and teams lose. It's part of life. And we also want to prove to everybody else that we mean business."

Before Central's first-period explosion, the Raiders first survived a 5-on-3 Andover power play that set an early defensive tone in front of goalie Matt Pasquale, who faced only eight shots the first two periods.

"That was very important," Brandvold said of the penalty kill. "It happened right away, but I thought we did a good job there. We got our feet underneath ourselves and got going."

A wrap-around goal by Charlie Stahley with 7:04 left in the first ignited the Raiders (9-1 MVC/Dual County, 17-1 overall). That was followed three minutes later by a wrister in the slot from Eric Lester. Then with 22 seconds remaining, Jankowski took a nice feed from Sean Brown while skating down the slot and connecting with a wrister.

"It's definitely a well-built offense," said Jankowski, one of 10 Raiders to record a point. "I think we're a tight-knit group that works well together. We all push for the same goal which is to get back to where we were last year, and hopefully do what we can to get some revenge for (an overtime loss to Arlington in the Super 8 championship game)."

Central upped its lead to 4-0 just 54 seconds into the third period on a slapshot from the left circle by Will Winship after a slick pass from Evan DiGiovanni.

Playing its second game in as many nights, Andover (6-2-2, 8-4-2) climbed back into the game when Caeden Dillman slammed home a rebound of his own shot with 8:06 remaining. Three minutes later, Matt Belluche cut the deficit in half with a power-play goal.

But the Warriors, still playing under interim coach Peter Loring, were unable to capitalize on their second 5-on-3 opportunity over the final 1:26.

"I think our whole team stayed calm," Pasquale said of the penalty kill. "We're good under pressure and we prepare for these kinds of situations. Luckily we survived that."

Central Catholic 4, Andover 2

Central Catholic (17-1):     3 0 1 - 4

Andover (8-4-2):     0 0 2 - 2

Goals: A - Caeden Dillman, Matt Belluche; CC - Charlie Stahley, Eric Lester, Noah Jankowski, Will Winship

Assists: A - Michael Reilly, Matt Schuhwerk, Jake Lachance; CC - Jankowski, Steve Birch, Joe Biddle, Sean Brown, Ray Galasso, Evan DiGiovanni, Owen Fowler

Saves: A - Cole Chingris 34; CC - Matt Pasquale 16