Durfee Hilltoppers - Varsity Hockey: Durfee Hilltoppers: 2 - Brockton Boxers: 4
| Durfee Hilltoppers: 2 - Brockton Boxers: 4 | Back to Schedules |
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| Team Opponents: | Score: | ||||
| Durfee Hilltoppers vs | 2 | ||||
| Brockton Boxers | 4 |
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Game Played 2/10/2007 6:30PM |
Brockton Boxers win Big Three Championship
Ugly win for Durfee By: Tim Geary , Herald News Staff Reporter
FALL RIVER - The only numbers that should have mattered Saturday night at Driscoll Arena was the final score of 4-2, and the fact that Brockton High wrapped up the Big 3 Conference championship with its win over Durfee.
Instead, the outcome was overshadowed by the amount of penalties.
When it was finally and mercifully over, 37 penalties had been assessed for a total of 79
1/2 minutes.
And that doesn't include three game disqualifications for fighting.
Those infractions come with the door prize of a two-game MIAA suspension which means Durfee, still looking for those two elusive points to qualify for the state tournament, will have to play its next two games (against Diman on Wednesday and New Bedford next Saturday), minus senior Jared Marum, who has been one of the Toppers most versatile and valuable players all year.
The Boxers ejected were junior defenseman Ryan Cummings and senior forward Ralph Nee.
Durfee also lost both defenseman Nate Dupere and forward Josh Roseberry for too many penalty minutes. That does not count as an ejection and both will be in uniform on Wednesday.
It was a hard-hitting, spirited affair from the opening whistle, and as the game wore on it spiraled out of control at times.
Lost in all of this was a beautiful effort turned in by Durfee senior goaltender Zach Dupere, who finished the night with 34 saves.
Also overlooked with all the hijinx was a tremendously courageous performance by the undermanned Hilltoppers squad, which started the game with only 11 skaters and at one point had only eight.
"I just want to say how proud I am of my kids for the way they hung in there and battled to the end tonight," said Durfee coach Todd Whittemore. "We were down to eight or nine guys, but they never stopped playing."
In addition to one player being disqualified and two others forced to leave because they had too many penalties, Durfee also lost defenseman Dustin Andrade in the third period when he absorbed a brutal check and crumpled to the ice, where he was attended to by trainer Paul Peloquin for a couple of minutes before he was led, dazed, from the surface.
The victory was key for the Boxers, who came in with a 7-8 record and by virtue of the win clinched a state tournament berth.
They out-played the Toppers in the first period and had a 1-0 lead when Anthony Kelly tipped a shot by Zack Reid underneath Dupere's pads with 30 seconds left in the period.
The Boxers scored three goals in a penalty-marred second period, by Steve Daly, Rob Berg and Charles Costa, to take a 4-0 lead into the lockerroom. Two of those came while Durfee was short-handed.
The Hilltoppers refused to go quietly in the third. In between the constant parade to the box Durfee scored two goals, both on the power play.
Taylor Andrade knocked home the rebound of a Chris Benevides slap shot at 4:20 and then Benevides did the same when he batted the puck past Boxer goalie Seth Johnson at 7:35, after Johnson had stopped a shot by Alan Thibault.
©The Herald News 2007