Tag: Stanley Carter

Franklin Wins First D1 State Championship in 2OT

Franklin hockey
Franklin hockey celebrates its first ever D1 State Championship. (Ryan Lanigan/HockomockSports.com)

ByRyanLanigan_2016FollowRyanLanigan_2016
 
 
BOSTON, Mass. – A Cinderella run from the Franklin Panthers ended with a true storybook ending.

Sophomore Luke Downie, who celebrated his 16th birthday on Sunday, scored on a wrist shot six minutes into the second overtime to give Franklin a 4-3 win over St. Mary’s Lynn and the program its first MIAA Division 1 State Championship.

Senior Tyler Oakes connected on a pass from his own zone to senior and Jake Downie (Luke’s cousin) along the boards in the neutral, who then dropped the puck back to Luke after crossing the blue line. Luke fired a wrist shot that deflected off the the leg of a St. Mary’s defenseman and found its way over the goalie’s pad short side for the game winner.

“This is awesome,” Luke Downie said postgame. “This is the best birthday present you could ask for.”

Franklin – who had been shutout three straight years in the D2 State Final from 2011-2013 —got off to an ideal start with a pair of first period goals and took that same lead into the final period. But two goals in the first five minutes of the final period from St. Mary’s knotted the game 3-3.

The final 10 minutes remained scoreless, sending the game into a sudden death overtime period. Neither team could find the back of the net in that period either, sending the teams to the locker room for the ice to be cleaned for a second overtime period.

With exactly nine minutes to go in the second overtime period, Downie scored the game winner.

“I think that the problem was we were playing in the wrong division the other times,” Franklin head coach Chris Spillane joked. Franklin moved up to Division 1 at the start of the 2013 season. “This has just been one of those Cinderella years. To follow up last year with a new crop of kids and have them commit to something from day one, and to see them enjoy this success, that’s what high school sports are all about.”

Senior captain and defenseman Joe Corsi scored just his third goal of the season to give Franklin the lead midway through the first period. Sophomore Brendan O’Rielly relayed a perfect outlet pass to senior Sean Hedvig in alone on goal but St. Mary’s goalie Andrew LoRusso got a pad to it.

The puck bounced around and as a St. Mary’s defenseman tried to chip it out, Corsi had pinched in and jumped off the ice to grab the puck, put it on the ice and fired it into the back of the net with 8:26 left in the first period.

“They tried to chip it out and I caught it and just put it down,” Corsi said. “Coach always tells me to roll my wrist and I had to roll it on that one. It was just surreal. I haven’t scored a goal like that before.

“This a dream come true. No one believed we could do this at the beginning of the year, except us, all the guys in the locker room. Each in every day we grinding it out, it’s just a dream.”

Just three minutes later, Franklin doubled its lead. Senior Matt Pleshaw fired a wrist shot from inside the blue line that was blocked down. Before LoRusso could smother the puck, junior Joey Blasie poked it in to make it 2-0 with 5:14 left in the period.


Video courtesy of Gavin Mealey

The Spartans cut the deficit in half just 11 seconds into the second period when Eric Pedro knocked in rebound of shot by Dante Maribito.

But Franklin had an answer just minutes later as Alec Gilliatt found sophomore Jeremy Miller behind the net. Miller skated around and found a perfect passing lane between the post and a defenseman to feed freshman Kevin Mackay. Mackay took a step in and sniped one top shelf to make it 3-1 with just over 12 minutes to play in the second period.

Franklin took a 3-1 lead into the final period but once again St. Mary’s found early period success. Less than a minute in, Conor Foley batted in rebound for powerplay goal to make it 3-2. Just three minutes later, Maribito found the back of the net for his third point of the net to tie the game 3-3.

“Huge momentum swings,” Spillane said. “They started to carry the play and their offensive kids started to open up the ice. Nick did a great job making the saves he needed to make. We talked about team defense, keeping them high on the forecheck and the defensive guys winning the battles and chipping the puck out.

“That was a great hockey team we played tonight, it was back and forth and both teams had chances to win. I’m proud of my kids, they responded.”

The Panthers nearly had the winner at the end of the third period but LoRusso went post to post to deny Jake Downie with 1:11 to go.

Neither side produced a clear scoring chance in the 12 minute overtime period but Franklin goalie Nick Jasinski came up with a huge kick save off a redirection in the opening minutes of the second overtime. Just two minutes later, the Panthers had the game winner.

Like it has been all season, the Panthers got contributions from all three lines — and four different goal scorers.

“Four different goal scorers and that’s kind of been the key to our success,” Spillane said. “You can’t really one focus on that one player. I said in the locker room after overtime, someone in this room is going to be a hero. Who wants to be that hero tonight? Luke’s been playing great hockey for us, midseason he just turned it on. As a sophomore it’s great to see him be that hero. Also, Kevin Mackay scored his first high school goal tonight. That’s quite a team to score your first goal of the year. That’s the type of team we are. There are no one or two superstars, it’s 22 kids out there having the same belief, working hard and just grinding it out.”

“To win championships, you have to have depth and that’s what we have,” Corsi added. “Everyone believed and look at where we are now.”
The Panthers were somewhat of an unknown coming into season after graduating 21 seniors from a squad that made a historic run to the Super 8 last season. Now this year’s team has created its own place in history.

“I think it gives us a little validity as a program that we can do that, anytime you graduate that many seniors it’s a challenge,” Spillane said. “It just tells us what our junior varsity and youth programs are like. We have a lot of kids that want to wear that jersey and they’re going to wait around until they get that opportunity. We have 13 seniors this year and very few of them skated last year, if any. They waited four years to put that jersey on and they made the most of it.

“It feels good but it’s not about the coaching staff. Yeah we’re excited but it’s about seeing the faces on these kids in that locker room, how excited they are and how committed they were to win the hockey game. I know a lot of people said it’s a rebuilding year but I guess they thought different.”

Franklin hockey finished the season with an 18-4-5 record.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at RyanLanigan@hockomocksports.com and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.

Downie and Miller Spark Panthers Against OA

Nick Downie Jeremy Miller
Jake Downie (9) and Jeremy Miller (5) each scored a pair of goals for the Panthers in a 5-0 victory over OA. (Josh Perry/HockomockSports.com)

By Josh Perry, Managing Editor

FRANKLIN, Mass. – Heading into their first Hockomock game of the season, the Panthers seem to have solidified the blue line, but there are still question marks about who will provide the goals for the defending league champs.

On Wednesday night at Pirelli Veterans Arena, senior Jake Downie and sophomore Jeremy Miller provided the offensive punch. The second line forwards contributed four goals and two assists to propel the Panthers to a 5-0 victory over visiting Oliver Ames.

“Those two guys have been pretty consistent for us,” said Franklin coach Chris Spillane about Downie and Miller, who have been the team’s top scorers this season.

While he praised his second line for its production, he also added, “We need to rely on our first line a little more. If you’re going to have success then you need to have three lines contributing and right now we sort of have one going for us.”

The first line of Adam Assad, Alec Gilliatt, and Alex Bissanti started the game well, despite not having played in a full week due to a postponement on Saturday. Just four minutes in, Assad was robbed by a Zach Walsh kick save and just about three minutes later Gillatt set up Bissanti but Walsh went post to post to deny the point-blank chance.

The Panthers dominated the first period, but could not find a way past Walsh. The sophomore made 11 of his 30 saves in the first and kept the Tigers in the game. But, in the second, Franklin finally found the breakthrough.

A shot from the point by Stanley Carter was knocked down by Walsh and the puck sat in the crease for a second before Miller smartly tapped it to the left to a wide open Downie to finish into the open net.

“The defense threw it at the net,” said Miller, “and I was just kind of in front battling and he was where he was supposed to be on the back door.”

Downie added, “I was in the right spot and it just happened to pop out to me.”

Although the Tigers only managed five shots in all three periods and spent long stretches in the defensive zone, OA had several scoring chances. Senior Ben Litwack was left alone in the slot with four minutes left in the first but his shot was right into the pads of Nick Jasinski and early in the second Jared Costello sped forward and forced the goalie into another good kick save.

“At 1-0, they had some great chances and it easily could’ve been a 2-1 game for them,” said Spillane. “Nick’s been in there all year for us, he’s battle-tested, and he’s been making save after save for us.”

OA coach Mark Homer said, “I thought we were in survival mode too much during the game and maybe that comes with the inexperience we have, but I told the guys I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior if you’re on this team then we need to perform to their capabilities.”

Assad nearly doubled Franklin’s lead less than two minutes after Downie’s opener, but his great move to get past the defense ended with a shot ringing off the inside of the post.

Just 17 seconds into the third period, OA went on the power play, but the Tigers could not take advantage and did not get a shot on goal. Fifteen seconds after the penalty expired and with OA still pressed forward, a loose puck bounced onto the stick of Downie and he finished his breakaway to make it 2-0.

“It’s unfortunate because that was a good opportunity and we didn’t capitalize,” said Homer of the power play chance.

“The whole night we seemed to be playing too much in our own end. You’re facing a team that’s got fresh legs every shift with three or four lines…you get that energy that gets taken away.”

With 6:11 remaining the floodgates opened for the Panthers and it was another heads up play by Miller that broke it open. Freshman defenseman Kevin McKay fired a shot from the point that was blocked in front and Miller was first to react and flicked a shot past Walsh.

Brendan O’Reilly managed to make it 4-0 on a fluky goal after Walsh had saved the original chance. The puck was cleared off the Franklin player’s leg and looped over the stranded goalie. With just 42.5 left, Downie picked out Miller with a perfect pass on an odd-man rush and the sophomore tapped it in to complete the scoring.

Homer insisted this was a learning experience for the Tigers (3-2, 1-1) early in the season, including for his sophomore netminder, who is trying to fill the pads of graduated goalie Jimmy Tierney.

“He made some good stops early and kept us in the game,” said Homer of Walsh. “We need to work with him on controlling his rebounds because they got a lot off second or third opportunities…and that’s not entirely his fault.”

The Panthers (3-3-1, 1-0) are back to .500 after the win, but Franklin has also played a very difficult schedule that has included perennial powers from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. According to Miller, the early competition has forced Franklin to improve quickly.

“It’s been a huge change,” he explained, “because we came in here and didn’t really know what to expect. We lost a lot of guys last year and so it’s definitely more than anyone expected.”

Spillane agreed there has been progress, but still expects more for Franklin to compete on the level it has come to expect. He said, “I knew we were going to be offensively challenged at the beginning of the year but we just need those guys to step up and finish some goals.”

OA will host Attleboro on Saturday, while Franklin will travel to Foxboro.

Josh Perry can be contacted at JoshPerry@hockomocksports.com and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.