CM survives Needham bid
Catholic Memorial hockey coach Larry Rooney felt his heart skip a beat as he watched Needham senior captain Trent Kamke wind up for a last-second onetimer.
But in the end, Rooney was able to take a heavy sigh of relief. The shot clanged off the crossbar, before falling harmlessly to the ice as the Knights started 2018 with a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Rockets at Babson College.
“We saw the Bruins game earlier in the year,” Rooney said. “I think it was under a second, (Los Angeles) scored to ... win the game. Anything can happen on those faceoffs. They had a little pressure and momentum on us at that time. I think that showed you that Needham wasn’t going to give up, and they were going to keep coming at us, regardless of the time on the clock.”
The win was of utmost importance to a Knights squad set to enter a daunting Catholic Conference schedule later this week.
Chris Rooney got the Knights (3-2-0) going with his third goal of the season. When Thomas Larson ripped a shot that rebounded his way at the 10:25 mark of the second period, the forward didn’t miss, sliding one past the reach of Needham’s Dylan Jones to give Catholic Memorial the 1-0 advantage.
“It prepares us speed-wise,” the junior said of the win. “It boosts our morale. (Malden Catholic) coming up this week, so it prepares us well.”
The Knights were only able to convert on one of their power plays, but it proved vital. Freshman Will MacNeil netted a tally on the man-advantage to make it 2-0 with 4:59 remaining in the second period.
Needham (3-3-2) answered in short order. After wining the ensuing faceoff, Rockets junior Tom Chmielewski found Sam Rutter speeding up the ice. Rutter corraled the pass, then sniped a shot to cut the deficit to 2-1 just 7 seconds later.
But despite a late push by the Rockets, the Knights held on, outshooting their opponents 28-22.
“We know that those schools outside of the Catholic Conference are going to take us real hard and compete.” Rooney said. “And they play with a lot of pride, these town teams, these public teams. They play with a lot of pride …they’ve got the whole town behind them. And it’s really important that we come away with the win in these games, but we do the little things that are going to help us win some games down the stretch within the Catholic Conference.”
Elsewhere, Mike Flaherty reached 100 career points with two goals and three assists and Rockland won the Cashman Tournament by beating Whitman-Hanson, 9-3. Zach Callahan notched a hat trick and Nick Blonde registered his first two career goals for the Bulldogs (5-1-1).