FALMOUTH — Unbeaten Falmouth maintained its hold on the Dudley Cup by rolling to a 6-0 win against Greely in the annual New Year’s Day game at Family Ice on Thursday.

The two-time defending Class A champions overcame a phenomenal performance by Rangers goalie Kyle Kramlich to keep the cup, named for hockey benefactor Harold Dudley.

Kramlich made 65 saves and kept Greely close before the Yachtsmen (6-0) reeled off four goals in the final period.

“You’ve got to work hard to beat him,” Falmouth Coach Deron Barton said. “We knew the longer the game went on and the more pressure we put on him, the more tired he was going to get and eventually we were going to break him. It was good execution by the guys.”

With the loss, the Rangers, who appeared in the last three Western Class B finals, dropped to 1-4.

“These are the kind of games we want to play,” Greely Coach Barry Mothes said. “We need this level of competition. These kinds of games have made us better in the past. I hope we can grow from this.”

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Kramlich stopped 45 of 47 shots during the first two periods to keep Greely close.

“The first two periods we let him see the puck, and he made it look easy,” Barton said.

Robbie Armitage, a sophomore forward, opened the scoring 12:42 into the game when he skated in front of the crease from the right side of the goal and jammed the puck between Kramlich’s pads after Kramlich stopped his first shot.

With 38 seconds left in the second period, Jake Grade, a senior defenseman, scored the first of his three goals on a slap shot from the right point to make it 2-0.

Falmouth put the game out of reach when Isac Nordstrom, a senior forward, and Grade each scored in the first three minutes of the third period.

“Early in that third period, where the game is 2-0, we gave up two goals on the first few shifts,” Mothes said. “It turned a close game that we were in into something that is a lot further away. We just didn’t bear down enough in those first few shifts in that third period.”

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“We went back to basics, and we played real well,” said Nordstrom. “We just had to adjust. We had to go to the net and get bodies in front of the net.”

“With a good goalie like that, you’ve got to make him move and you can’t let him see the shot,” Barton said. “You let a guy like that see the puck, you’ll never score on him.”

“We got shots (in the first two periods), but they were all from the outside,” said Nordstrom, who made it 5-0 when he scored a short-handed goal with 7:16 left. “When we got bodies in front, (the shots) started going in.”

Grade completed his hat trick with 1:20 left.

The Rangers were unable to sustain much offensive pressure.

“(Falmouth) is obviously a very deep team with a lot of speed, some really good puck skills, some good shooters,” Mothes said. “They’re tenacious on the puck and it makes it hard to generate things.”

Goalie Ryan Bonnvie made 11 saves for the Yachtsmen’s fourth shutout this season. Falmouth has outscored its opponents, 49-4.


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