TAFT RHINOS BEAT SALISBURY IN IT FOR FIRST-EVER TITLE 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

MANCHESTER, NH – Midway through overtime, Alexander Kenerson (Watertown) captured a loose puck in a mad scramble of players and lifted it high into the open, upper part of the net as the Taft Rhinos edged out and dethroned the defending champs, the Salisbury Crimson Knights, 3-2 to capture the Martin/Earl Large Division championship Sunday afternoon.

Salisbury netminder Matt Alberti (Hamburg, NY) made two outstanding saves before surrendering the game-winner. The first was stopping Remy Reynolds (Atlanta, GA), who was set up by Jackson Holl (Avon). The second came on JJ Lemieux (Webster, NY). However, Alberti left a loose puck that created a furious net-front battle to retrieve and control it. Kenerson came in and gobbled the loose puck, and patiently fired it over the moshpit of players for the championship-clinching goal.

Taft came up firing early in the extra period as they got a chance 15 seconds into the contest as Lemieux’s bid was stopped by Alberti. Taft’s Rudy Guimond (Pointe-Claire, QC) stopped a wraparound attempt at Salisbury’s Trey Deere (Kahnawake, QC).

Then Taft Head Coach Ryan Shannon, an NHL veteran, used his pro smarts and called an OT timeout to give his troops some rest.

The strategy worked.

Coming off the timeout, Taft picked up their game considerably. Lemieux nearly connected with speedster Tremblay. Guimond stopped Quinn McCall (St. John, IN) before Kenerson had been coming down the middle and saw Leyland Johnson (Burlingame, CA) had the skating edge and fed him on a left-wing rush but was turned aside by Alberti’s blocker save.

Hayden Hans (Greenwich) nearly ended it for Salisbury, but Guimond made a right pad save before the game-winning sequence.

This was the season’s third 3-2 overtime game between the two schools.

In the third, it looked as if Taft would win it in regulation time when Jackson Holl (Avon) was on the left wing and got the rebound of Derek Tremblay’s (Boischatel, QC) long-distance turnaround shot that Alberti stopped with his right pad.

Holl just threw it in front of the net, and it went off the skate of Anthony Biakabutuka’s (Longueuil, QC) skate and into the net at 7:10.

From that point on, the Crimson Knights of Salisbury played puck possession and an accurate passing game.

The only way they found a way to beat Guimond was a tip-up high by Jared Rothman (Chappaqua, NY) off a hard low shot by Sam Hall (Oldwick, NJ) which came off a pass from Rapolas Marcinkevicius (Vilnius, Latvia), at 9:17. Marcinkevicius was strong in puck possession along the boards and played a strong game in the boy’s school final.

The Rhinos came out strong at the start and captured the game’s first goal.

At 3:34, Shane Mettler (New Canaan), off a strong forecheck, forced a turnover. He fired a pass out in front for Archer Brown (New York, NY) just inside the blue line. He moved in ten feet into the open ice and fired a wrister that beat Alberti from 35 feet out.

Hudson Gorski (Scotch Plains, NJ, had an early bid that Guimond denied. Tremblay found Holl, but Alberti shut the door. Holl, 15 feet out on the left wing, had an opportunity Alberti stopped as well. Salisbury’s Ty Creech (Tampa, FL), with 4:30 to play in the period, was stopped by Guimond. Deere tried his first right-wing wraparound attempt with no success

The Crimson Knights equaled the score in the final minute of regulation at 17:38 as Michael Strapp (Harbour Main, Newfoundland, Canada) took the pass from Marcinkevicius on a turnover for the tying goal before the buzzer sounded.

With .02 seconds left, Taft nearly got the go-ahead goal from Zeve Greene, but Alberti made the stop.

In the second, the two teams exchanged chances and hits in an evenly played, scoreless period of championship action.

Salisbury’s Biakabutuka, after several reverses on the left wing, tried going short side on Guimond, but he was there. The Crimson Knights tried to push the envelope as Alex Zakrzewski (Buffalo, NY) tied the score.

A Brown commit, Zakrzewski made a strong rush on Guimond but couldn’t get it past him. Hanes made a right-wing rush, but Guimond said, “Nope.”

Taft’s Jacob Podhajsky (Knoxville, TN) tried to change the direction of his team with a big hit on the left-wing boards. Lemieux had a good backhand after another attempt by Salisbury’s Deere AND Seamus Latta (Bozeman, MT). Then Salisbury’s Nicolas Petrut (Russell, ON) had a quality chance snuffed out.

Salisbury’s Liam Kilfoil (Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada), Henry Metz (Bloomfield Hills, MI), and Marcinkevicius in the slot were turned away by Guimond.

Crimson Knight’s Garrett Krieger (Skaneateles, NY) set up Deere with 40.8 left in the period.

Then Deere, before the period expired in the final ten seconds had two chances, one left-wing and the other right-wing, to no avail.

TAFT HOCKEY

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