Taconic Wins Opener at McCann Tech
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Taconic hockey team took a two-goal lead early in the second period and held off McCann Tech to earn a 2-1 win in the Thunder’s season-opener on Wednesday night.
Roshan Warriar and Alexander Jerebtsov each scored, and Antonio Salise made 24 saves to top the Hornets to 1-2.
“It’s no secret our strongest position is goalie,” Taconic coach Matt Risley said. “He did a fantastic job, kept us in the game, made some fantastic saves.”
McCann Tech coach Mathew Parise agreed.
“I thought Antonio played phenomenal,” Parise said. “I think we outshot them, 34-18, or something like that. We had two or three breakaways on him, some great 2-on-1s. He just made some phenomenal saves.
“He was the difference for them tonight.”
Scalise stopped nine shots in the first period as the Hornets took it to the Thunder in the early going.
The only one to light the lamp was Taconic’s Warriar, who put his team on top in the 11th minute.
“I basically told [our players] to get in the flow of the game,” Risley said of the conversation on the bench in the first period. “This is your first game. This was their third game. They had a leg up on us, for sure. We had to get into the flow of the game. We did, and we started making plays with each other, started moving the puck, and good things happen.”
The good times continued for Taconic to start the second period.
Five minutes in, Jerebtsov stole the puck in the neutral zone and skated in on a breakaway before slipping the puck past McCann Tech keeper Abby Fuls (17 saves) to make it a 2-0 game.
David Delisle got the Hornets on the board with 5:57 left in the second when he converted an assist from Nick Abuisi.
McCann Tech continued to apply pressure throughout the third period, but Scalise and the Taconic defense was equal to the challenge.
In the first minute of the period, Scalise denied Ethan Wilson on a breakaway opportunity. Later in the stanza, he stoned Dallas Richter.
The Thunder denied McCann Tech on its only power play opportunity of the night midway through the third period and in the final minute, when the Hornets pulled Fuls with 28 seconds left and had two offensive faceoffs with the extra attacker.
Staying out of the box was a big key for Taconic, which only had two man-up opportunities of its own, both in the first half.
“I’ve been trying to coach that out of our team for quite some time now,” said Risley, who coached the Central Berkshire cooperative squad when it was hosted by Wahconah before moving to Taconic this winter. “I’d rather play hard, clean, fast hockey, like this was.
“We need to clean up some areas, no doubt. But it was a great first win. I’m ecstatic for them. Now, it’s, ‘Let’s get back to work and get ready to play on Saturday.’ ”
Parise was not ecstatic following the loss, but neither was he pessimistic about his team’s effort one week into the season.
“They’ve had to pick up a lot of what I’m doing,” the first-year coach said. “It’s a lot different than what they’ve done in the past. I think they are getting it very quickly.
“Our first game was with seven practices in, so we jumped right into our first game. We threw them right in the fire. Tonight could have gone either way. … It just was one of those games. Any one bounce could have sent the game either way.”
McCann Tech goes back on the road on Saturday to face Easthampton at Lossone Rink. Taconic is at Agawam on Saturday at Olympia.