With 36 seconds remaining in the first period, Westbrook was in a scoreless tie with Scarborough in Saturday’s season-opening boys hockey game. The Red Storm had a number of shots on goal, but couldn’t slip the puck past Blazes goaltender Zachary Joy.
Then suddenly any hopes of an upset that Westbrook had been entertaining were swept away when their opponents netted nine goals in the next nine minutes of play, including a pair in the waning seconds of the first period.
In the end, the quick and skillful Scarborough offense proved too much for the Blazes to handle.
“We tried to come out hard and to stay behind our freshman goalie the best we could,” said Westbrook’s Zach Souza. “We got tired after a while.”
Brent Mayo had two goals and a pair of assists for the Red Storm, while Michael Dakers and Kyle Huber added two goals and an assist each. Six other teammates scored as well.
“We’ve been practicing hard lately,” Mayo said. “We played as a team and let it happen. No one went for the goals.”
Westbrook was able to mount some offense in the middle of the first period, but most of the pressure was on Joy, who made a nice kick save on a Jason Quirk breakaway attempt six minutes into the action. A short while later, with Joy down, Mayo flipped the puck just over the net.
Those bounces would eventually start going Scarborough’s way.
Dakers finally broke the scoring drought with just over a half-minute left in the first and Mayo slid the puck through the five hole 27 seconds later. The Red Storm’s offense was in gear after that, and came out roaring in the second period.
“We played great the first period,” said Blazes forward Chris Marston. “We let up, and second period we just weren’t ready.”
Through it all, Westbrook’s players kept their composure, not allowing the score to become an excuse for chippy play. Each team was whistled for just one penalty.
“I thought, as a team, we did really well keeping each other going,” Marston said. “We didn’t give up. We kept our heads up.”
Joy stopped 29 of the 41 shots that Scarborough fired at him, while Josh Larrabee recorded a shut out, saving all 10 of the shots he saw.
“We’ve just go to stay positive,” said Souza, “and the wins will come.”
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