Velasco's Game-Winner Lifts Taconic on Senior Night

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – After jumping out to a 4-1 lead early in the second period, the Taconic hockey team found itself in a tie game just a minute into the third.

 

But Dom Velasco scored his second goal of the game in the 33rd minute, and Cam LaFerriere made 11 of his 31 saves in the third period to secure a 5-4 win over Easthampton at the Boys and Girls Club on Wednesday night.

 

“We just know how to fight,” LaFerriere said of the Thunder’s ability to refocus after giving up three goals in eight minutes to lose the lead. “We’ve been in a ton of close games. We know how to fight.

 

“It’s nothing new. We grew up playing gritty hockey, where it’s just fight until the end. We know we can be in a tie game and come out on top.”

 

The win moved Taconic to 5-8-3 with one game left in the regular season, Friday at Southwick. The Thunder needs every point it can get down the stretch as it started Wednesday ranked 34th statewide in Division 4 and fighting for the third seed in next week’s four-team Western Massachusetts Class B Tournament.

 

And Taconic started out strong on Wednesday, scoring the game’s first goal when Zack Schneider put home the rebound of an Alexander Jerebtsov shot from the point midway through the first period.

 

Easthampton’s Mikey Thompson scored the equalizer off a rebound three minutes later, but Brayden Bishop cashed in an assist from Cody Soper late in the period to send Taconic into the first intermission ahead, 2-1.

 

The Thunder picked up where it left off after the break.

 

Soper played the rebound off the back boards and slid a shot past Paige Galpin (21 saves) to make it 3-1 in the opening minutes of the second.

 

And with 10 minutes, 30 seconds on the clock and the teams 4-on-4, Velasco made a nifty move on a break up the right wing, putting the puck between a defender’s leg and beating Galpin inside the far post to make it 4-1.

 

But the Eagles struck back with a pair of goals before the period ended, including Thompson’s second of the game with 2.4 seconds on the clock, to draw within a goal.

 

Then Easthampton tied it just 38 seconds into the third period.

 

“We had some puck management issues,” Taconic coach Matt Risley said. “A little lull in the action. We started the game off great. The first half of the game was great. And then we went into a little bit of a lull where we were taking too much time with the puck, we weren’t moving open for each other, we weren’t playing together.

 

“But they did a good job of regrouping, getting back together, getting back to the basics, and it was a huge win for us.”

 

The game-winner came off an offensive zone faceoff win by Velasco, who sent the puck to Soper on the right wing. Soper played it back to Ray Lynch, who fired a shot from just inside the blue line.

 

Galpin made the save, but Bishop tipped the puck to Velasco, who put it home to put Taconic up, 5-4, with 12:23 left to play.

 

Easthampton’s efforts to get the equalizer were hampered by a couple of third period power plays.

 

And when they got back to even strength, late in the period, LaFerriere made a couple of big stops in the final minute to preserve the win.

 

The goalie was one of 10 seniors honored prior to Wednesday’s game, nine in uniform plus the team’s manager.

 

Risley agreed that having such an experienced group helped keep the team focused in a season when its trying schedule led to a couple of three-game losing streaks.

 

“Our schedule this was year pretty tough,” Risley said. “We played every Berry Division team, teams we don’t normally play. We played up. We’re a Division 4 team, and we only had three Division 4 games.

 

“Every other game was Division 2 and 3, which speaks to their character, because we were in every game. Like I said to them a couple of weeks ago: There wasn’t one game we played where we didn’t belong on the ice with them. … That’s a huge testament to these seniors and how they work, how hard they work.”