Hot Keeper Lifts Amherst at McCann Tech

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The McCann Tech hockey team Saturday outshot Amherst, 37-18, in a 4-1 loss at Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.

 

Just don't look for the Hornets' coach to use the "M" word to describe the night.

 

"I hate moral victories," Matt Parise said after McCann Tech fell to 0-5 this winter. "Really, I hate 'em.

 

"We're a much better hockey team than what that score showed. ... I keep saying the same thing: The attitude is there. We're not giving up. We're keeping going, which is what I'm trying to build here culture-wise. So, we're getting there. We just gotta put it together."

 

Amherst's Jason Kim stopped 36 shots, and four different Hurricanes lit the lamp as they improved to 3-2-1.

 

The visitors killed two first period McCann Tech power play chances before getting the game's first goal in the 10th minute.

 

Ethan Mooney scored 4-on-4 to make it 1-0. Three minutes later, Joshua Feldman put one past the Hornets' Ben Harrington (11 saves, 27 minutes) to make it a two-goal margin going to the first intermission.

 

The second period echoed the first.

 

Two man-up opportunities for the Hornets went by the boards before Amherst's Brach Applegate picked up a loose puck on the doorstep and went top shelf to make it 3-0 with 5 minutes, 35 seconds left in the period.

 

Amherst then converted a power-play opportunity of its own when Sawyer Ferro blasted a shot from the high slot that gave the Hurricanes a 4-0 lead and ended Harrington's night.

 

Ben Harris saw no action over the final few minutes of the period and little in the third period, when the Hornets outshot Amherst, 17-3.

 

All that pressure produced a power play goal with 6:13 to play.

 

Mason Rondeau slid a pass across the slot in front of Kim for John Stack, who finished to score the final goal of the game.

 

Although it was the only time the Hornets were able to beat Kim, there were plenty of other quality scoring chances for a team that has 10 goals in five games.

 

"There was a play there in the third: The puck went back to the 'D,' it went over to the wing, the wing hit the center going through the middle all by himself," Parise said. "It's text book stuff.

 

"We can do it. It's there. It's just doing it on a consistent basis. So, you know, positives, but I don't like moral victories. I'm not a moral victory guy."

 

McCann Tech hosts Southwick on Saturday.

 

Photos from this game to come