Fast Start, Ellingwood Hat Trick Lift Drury Icers over .500

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The Drury hockey team jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first four minutes and did not let off the gas in a 9-1 win over Mount Everett on Saturday evening at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.

 

“I think it’s a big a change from how we’ve been starting the game,” Drury captain Corbin Rumbolt said. “We’ve been really slow in the first period before, but today we came out ready. We scored four in the first period, and we just gradually kept going with it and having fun with the game.”

 

Rumbolt had a goal and three assists, and Toby Ellingwood recorded a hat trick as the Blue Devils improved to 5-4-2.

 

Seven different players scored and two more had at least an assist. Corey Callander stopped 12 shots, and the Blue Devils won for the fourth time in their last five outings.

 

Drury coach Kevin Ellingwood agreed it was nice to get offense from so many places in the win.

 

“Everybody skated,” Drury coach Kevin Ellingwood said. “We ran three-plus lines the whole time. It was a good chance for kids who have been working hard to get into the game.”

 

Drury got the scoring started in the second minute when captain Caleb Rondeau took the puck down the right-wing board, circled behind the goal and set up Kelsey Haley in the slot. Haley finished to give Drury a 1-0 lead.

 

Five seconds later, Mount Everett drew the game’s first penalty, and with 11 minutes, 55 seconds left in the period, Ellingwood scored the first of Drury’s three power play goals with an assist from Branden Lincoln.

 

Rumbolt set up David Delisle, and Lincoln scored on the rebound of a Rondeau shot to make it 4-0 Drury after one period.

 

“We’ve been a little slow in the first period, so that was our goal right from the start, coming out hard,” Kevin Ellingwood said. “The guys did it -- actually all the way through -- but right in the first period to go up 4-0, I’m very pleased with the effort and the battles to the puck.”

 

Winning those battles allowed Drury to keep Mount Everett bottled up in its defensive zone most of the first half. The Blue Devils earned a 13-3 advantage in shots on goal in the first 15 minutes.

 

“They did a very good job of moving the puck in our zone,” Mount Everett coach Aidan Gilligan said. “They worked hard out front, and I think every goal in the first period was scored because of quick passes out front. They did a good job. Hats off to them.

 

“They did a great job of forechecking on us. They did a good job of taking away some of our breakout opportunities. They worked hard, and it showed on the scoreboard.”

 

Drury kept up the pressure in the second period, adding three more goals.Ellingwood scored two in a row in the first five minutes of the period to make it 6-0. And Rondeau added a goal with help from Chase Vanderwoude.

 

Mount Everett finally got on the board in the 35th minute when Grayson Duval scored with assists from Carly Duval and Aidan Engel.

 

But Drury responded moments later when Brian Czarnecki set up Omar Uqdah to make it 8-1, and Rumbolt capped the scoring by tipping in a blast from the point.

 

After a week in which it led unbeaten Greenfield into the third period before falling, 2-1, and earned a convincing win over a league rival, Drury is flying high heading into Wednesday’s home game against winless Southwick.

 

“I don’t want jinx it, but I’m feeling good right now with how we’re going,” Rumbolt said. “We have some tough games coming up, but I think we can tough it out and win these.”

 

The Eagles, who got 37 saves from the tandem of Jake Seward-Daley and Cole Duval on Saturday night, will face another tough challenge on Monday when they host Greenfield at the Berkshire School.

 

“It’s definitely deflating because it’s two games in a row we lost, 9-1,” Gilligan said. “We’ve got to do a little soul-searching. … We have to be better, and our good players have to be better. It’s as simple as that.”