Warrior Skaters Drop Home Finale

As he’s done all year long, King Philip goaltender Tanner Jensen did everything possible to give his team a chance at a win.

Unfortunately, as in the past, the Warriors fell just short, and lost 3-2 to Marblehead in the team’s last home game of the season.

The junior net minder turned away 70 shots in the loss, leaving attendees in the Foxboro Sports Center in awe of his performance. At the other end of the ice, his teammates could only muster 12 totals shots.

“That was the most impressive game Tanner has ever had,” King Philip Coach Pat Leahy said. “After the second period, I got together with the Marblehead coach and we were within one of each other on the number of saves he had.”

Marblehead (13-4-3 in Division 3 North) got on the board first, one minute and forty-six seconds into the game. Following a King Philip rush into the visitor’s zone, Marblehead took the puck and pushed it back up the ice, culminating in a Hunter Graves goal.

The Warriors would tally the equalizer 28 seconds into a power-play opportunity when Ryan Boselli picked up a Kevin Cronin rebound and deposited the puck in the upper left-hand corner. Ed Riddoch got an assist on the Boselli goal as well.

Much of the second period saw Marblehead taking shooting practice on Jensen, who, time and time again, turned away any puck that came his way. With KP holding a man advantage, the visitors stormed in on the Warrior keeper with a 3-on-1 and once again it was Jensen to the rescue, stifling the threat.

As time ticked down under one minute in the period and the score was still knotted at one, Chris McCloud scored the first of his two goals on the afternoon, banging home a rebound behind Jensen.

With the late period tally the visitors felt good about themselves, but just 24 seconds later Gavin MacIntyre made a nifty move behind the Marblehead net and found Boselli alone in front of the cage. The sophomore forward quickly took the pass and deposited the puck at the back of the net for his second tally of the game. Once again, the teams went into the locker room even.

Throughout the game, King Philip was able to kill numerous penalties, but with 6:55 left in the game (11 seconds into another Marblehead power-play) McCloud took a crossing pass from Ben Coopman and beat Jensen for the second time, giving the visitors another one-goal lead. 

Although KP had battled back twice already, there would be no miracle this time and Marblehead was able to skate out the clock for the victory.

“Taking care of the puck has been a problem of ours all year and, although we lost the game, I am not displeased with the way we played today,” the coach said. “We came out and played a physical game. Although we were out-shot, we had a chance to win this one.”

The Warriors (4-13-2) closed out the season Tuesday afternoon with a game in Taunton against Bishop Feehan.