FRANKLIN – The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) announced today its postseason tournament pairings for both boys’ and girls’ high school ice hockey and from the looks of it this postseason already has all the makings of one to be remembered.
Barnstable’s Donnie Brodd (21) and Matt Kaski (17) will face Falmouth’s Matt Schreiner (20) and Jason Holzman (25) later this week in a postseason match-up reminiscent of the heyday of the 56-year-old hockey rivalry.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports file photo
The Barnstable Red Raiders (13-5-1), who took a share of the Old Colony League championship title earlier this season and went 1-1-1 against some of the state’s top teams, were nevertheless knocked out of Super Eight contention by a 5-0 vote today by the Super Eight Selection Committee prior to the MIAA announcement of the postseason seedings.
Franklin and Xaverian will play against each other in a Super Eight “Play-In” and the winner of that game will advance in the Super Eight tournament. The loser of that game will be the top seed in Division 1 South (as noted below).
Regardless, Barnstable’s dream match-up for the South Sectionals came true when the Red Raiders drew the archrival Falmouth Clippers. Falmouth (9-9-4) is seeded 14th and Barnstable is seeded 3rd. The game will be played either Thursday (Feb. 26) or Friday (Feb. 27) at the Gallo Ice Arena, according to Falmouth High head coach Paul Moore and he’s just as fired up about it it as his old high school archnemesis, Barnstable High head coach Scott Nickerson.
If any two former high school hockey stars know about the vaunted Barnstable-Falmouth rivalry, it would be Moore and Red Raider hall of famer Nickerson. Moore was a senior and Nickerson was a junior when the two faced each other in the old Boston Garden on March 10, 1980 in the Eastern Massachusetts Division 2 Ice Hockey finals and Barnstable won, 4-1, with Nickerson scoring a goal and tacking on three assists.
Both coaches were excited to hear the news they would be facing each other once again, and for Moore it could not be a more opportune match-up. Barnstable beat Falmouth twice this season, with the last defeat coming two weeks ago in Hyannis, 7-1. In essence, it’s a high-profile game with a chance to avenge that loss.
“It’s a great match-up for us,” Moore said, and characterized the Red Raider-Clipper rivalry games of the late 1970s-early 1980s as “absolute battles.”
Falmouth freshman phenom Mackenzie Haberl will be just one of many Clippers who will try to move quickly past Algonquin this week in the preliminary round of the Division 2 postseason.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports file photo
Moore said the match-up is a great motivator for his boys.
Nickerson was equally motivated and itching to get his troops back on the ice.
“We have to play well to move on,” Nickerson said. “We have always had success against them in the tournament. While I’ve been head coach, we are 4-0 against them in the tournament, but we try to use the (New England) Patriots’ theory of ‘One game at a time’ and all of our opponents are very good. We will need to work hard and be prepared.”
Barnstable made an early season switch by necessity over to senior goalie Dylan Campbell and the move has obviously reaped fairly significant dividends for the Red & White. Falmouth has experimented this season with its goaltending assignments but ultimately switched starters and has used senior Kyle Storey with relative success.
Barnstable’s top line featuring Mark Brodd and Matt Kaski will be tough to solve and it’s a line that has Falmouth’s number in terms of scoring goals, but make no mistake, with top skaters like Jake Miller and Pat Coyne and the bruising Nick Marston and Tobey brothers (Cam and Tom), this game will without question be the highlight of the preliminary round of the Division 1 tournament. In the words of the late W. Leo Shields over seven decades ago in regard to the Barnstable-Falmouth rivalry, records are meaningless and “anyone can win this game.”
Division 1 South Boys’ Hockey Seedings:
1. Franklin or Xaverian
2. Wellesley (14-2-4) .800
3. Barnstable (13-5-1) .711
4. Newton North (13-5-3) .690
5. Duxbury (12-5-5) .659
6. Milton (13-6-3) .659
7. Weymouth (10-4-6) .650
8. Braintree (9-5-6) .600
9. Framingham (9-6-5) .575
10. Hingham (11-8-3) .568
11. Marshfield (9-9-4) .500
12. Mansfield (10-10-0) .500
13. Natick (8-8-4) .500
14. Falmouth (9-9-4) .500
15. Bridgewater-Raynham (7-9-4) .450
16. Brockton (5-11-4) .350
The Cape’s only entry into the Division 2 South boys’ tournament is the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins. It’s been somewhat of a roller coaster season for the Green & White boys from South Yarmouth, but from what we’ve seen this year, these boys can skate and goalie Justin Servidori is outstanding. Truth be told, these boys come to play and play hard. Seeded #13, the Dolphins (8-8-4) will face #4-seeded Coyle Cassidy (14-5-1) so the Station Ave. Crew does have its work cut out, but if the likes of Tom Slovak and Jack Harney and Tyler Gleason have anything to say about it, it most certainly will be a contest.
Dennis-Yarmouth goalie Justin Servidori and his D-Y Dolphins will face Coyle Cassidy this week in the Division 2 South boys’ hockey tournament.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports file photo
Division 2 South Boys’ Hockey Seedings:
1. Westwood (16-2-2) .850
2. Medfield (16-3-1) .825
3. Plymouth South (13-3-4) .750
4. Coyle & Cassidy (14-5-1) .725
5. Medway (13-6-1) .675
6. Canton (12-6-1) .658
7. Bishop Feehan (11-6-2) .632
8. Milford (12-7-1) .625
9. North Attleboro (12-7-1) .625
10. Pembroke (10-7-4) .571
11. Plymouth North (9-7-4) .550
12. Oliver Ames (9-8-3) .525
13. Dennis-Yarmouth (8-8-4) .500
14. Quincy (8-10-3) .450
15. Brookline (3-15-3) .214
Mashpee-Monomoy’s Will Wahtola and Ari Purdy, as well as goalie Jack Daigneault (1), will battle the winner of Holliston/Somerset-Berkeley this week while Nantucket with Conner Pierce (19) will face the tough Bourne Canalmen.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
The Cape contingency in the Division 3 South boys’ pairings is well-represented and stacked with top talent and some might argue talent good enough to play in a higher division no less. The high-seeded #4 Mashpee/Monomoy Monarchs have proven beyond competitive this season with netminder Jack Daigneault boasting a scary 0.64 goals against average and Colin Fader surpassing the 100-point career milestone but be forewarned: these are no two-trick ponies. The Monarchs have a pair of top lines that can interchange and keep the flow rolling with the likes of such top goal-scorers as senior captain Aidan Sullivan whose season has been a stream of multi-goal outputs. Tack on the likes of the Vinitsky brothers (Andrew and Josh) and defensemen like Peter Lucarelli and Alex Souza and the winner of the Holliston/Somerset-Berkeley game had best be prepared. The Monarchs take on the winner of that match-up after getting a bye from the prelim round. Holliston is seeded 20th and Somerset-Berkeley is seeded 13th after an 11-6-3 season. The Monarchs finished at 12-3-1. Game date, time and place to be announced.
Seeded number 8 are the Bourne Canalmen. Now let’s get something straight right out of the box: the Canalmen may have finished at 12-5-3, but no opponent should underestimate the raw talent and superior skating and scoring abilities of such top Cape dogs as Austin Braley (25 goals/38 pts.), Dawson Prophett (12 goals/15 assts.) and Mitchell Eldridge, not to fail to mention the hulking defenseman Jacob Davis. Combined with the superior goaltending of Jack Lacasse (1.71 GAA), and the Canalmen are in good standing when they face #9 seed Nantucket and top goalie Peter Bopp (1.75 GAA) this week (12-6-1).
Then, of course, we have the upstart Cape Tech/Cape Cod Academy Crusaders that features the likes of Danny Crossen (scored six goals in one game this season and finished tied for the Cape lead in points scored with 38) and “The Rifleman” Cole Therrien (16 goals/20 assts.) Cape Tech/CCA, seeded #10, will face 23rd-seeded Attleboro (8-11-1), date/time to be announced.
Division 3 South Boys’ Hockey Seedings:
1. Norwell (17-1-3) .881
2. Tri-County (14-3-0) .824
3. Hanover (15-3-2) .800
4. Mashpee/Monomoy (12-3-1) .781
5. Cohasset (13-2-5) .775
6. Old Rochester (16-5-1) .750
7. Dighton-Rehoboth/Seekonk (15-7-0) .682
8. Bourne (12-5-3) .675
9. Nantucket (12-6-1) .658
10. Cape Tech/Cape Cod Academy (13-7-0) .650
11. Sacred Heart (11-6-3) .625
12. Dover-Sherborn (11-6-3) .625
13. Somerset-Berkley (11-6-3) .625
14. Apponequet (12-8-0) .600
15. Southeastern Regional (12-8-2) .591
16. Rockland (12-9-1) .568
17. Abington (10-8-2) .550
18. Norton (8-7-4) .526
19. Diman (10-10-1) .500
20. Holliston (9-9-2) .500
21. Silver Lake (8-10-2) .450
22. Bishop Stang (7-10-3) .425
23. Attleboro (8-11-1) .425
The Red Raider girls are eager to make some noise in the postseason when they face the winnerof Lincoln-Sudbury and Marblehead in the MIAA Division 1 tourney this week.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports file photo
Yes, the Barnstable Red Raiders failed to capture the SEMGHL Coastal Division title to archrival Falmouth but they did the same thing in 2007 when they lost one game and went on to win the Division 1 State Championship title. The Red & White also snapped right back into “winning mode” with top-shelf freshman goalie Olivia Sollows looking as solid if not better than she has all season as the regular season came to a close last week. You have to tip your hat to such stalwarts as Lindsey Phelan and Morgan Richard and Callie Rogorzenski but to be frank, this team is so loaded with talent and depth it’s almost impossible to single out one player from any line as the key to success. How the top-ranked team in the state all season can get a three-seed is beyond us, but at 15-1-4 someone in charge must be trying to force the Red Raiders to prove themselves once again. They will get that chance against the winner of 15th-seeded Lincoln-Sudbury vs. #19 Marblehead either Thursday or Friday night.
Division 1 Girls’ Hockey Tournament Seedings:
1. Reading (18-2-0) .900
2. Arlington Catholic (17-2-1) .875
3. Barnstable (15-1-4) .850
4. Watertown/Belmont (18-3-1) .841
5. Austin Prep (15-3-2) .800
6. Acton-Boxboro (15-3-3) .786
7. Needham (13-4-3) .725
8. Haverhill/North Andover (13-4-3) .725
9. Beverly/Danvers (13-5-1) .711
10. Duxbury (13-5-2) .700
11. Chelmsford (12-5-3) .675
12. Winthrop/Lynn (11-6-1) .639
13. Andover (11-6-2) .632
14. Lincoln Sudbury (11-7-2).600
15. Westford Academy ((10-6-4) .600
16. Arlington (10-8-2) .550
17. Woburn (12-10-0) .545
18. Masconomet (9-8-3) .525
19. Marblehead (9-8-4) .524
20. Billerica (8-4-4)
21. Melrose (9-9-2) .500
22. Newton North (6-12-2) .350
RECORD SETTER – Falmouth High’s Madison Haberl notched her 100th and 101st career points a few days ago and she’s not alone as teammate Kelly Ferreira did the same thing two weeks ago.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports file photo
It’s almost laughable that the SEMGHL Coastal Division Champions Falmouth – the toughest girls’ ice hockey division in the state, we’d argue – is seeded 8th in the Division 2 pairings. The 15-4-2 Clipper girls are relentless and skilled and loaded with talent like the high-flying Haberl sisters (Madison and Mackenzie), Kelly Ferreira, Ericka Meissner, Emily Sanidas, Maggie MacDonald, Brooke Bowman and the list goes on. It’s no secret that senior captain Madison Scavotto is playing like the female version of a 1980 Jim Craig right now and her goals against average echoes that sentiment at 1.33. The Clippers play a preliminary round game against #25-seeded Algonquin Regional (9-10-1). Let’s hope it’s a rout because Erin Hunt’s girls are no strangers to the Division 2 title game.
Martha’s Vineyard finished at 12-5-2 this season and are seeded 13th. The Vineyarders will face Fontbonne Academy (10-6-4), seeded at #20. A fairly even match-up should be expected but if top-M-V athlete Sydney Davies gets clear for a shot it could be lights out. Davies finished the regular season with 27 points (15 goals and 12 assists).
Division 2 Girls’ Hockey Tournament Seedings:
1. King Philip (15-0-3) .921
2. Wellesley (16-1-3) .875
3. Plymouth N&S (13-2-1) .844
4. Methuen/Tewksbury (14-3-1) .806
5. Marshfield (16-4-0) .800
6. Medfield (14-2-4) .800
7. Milton (16-3-3) .796
8. Falmouth (15-4-2) .762
9. Archbishop Williams (15-4-3) .750
10. Medway/Ashland (13-4-3) .725
11. Notre Dame Academy (13-4-3) .725
12. Burlington (13-5-1) .710
13. Martha’s Vineyard (12-5-2) .684
14. Dedham (10-3-7) .675
15. Shrewsbury (12-5-3) .675
16. Winchester (11-5-3) .658
17. Canton (12-6-2) .650
18. Pembroke (11-5-4) .650
19. Norwood (11-5-4) .650
20. Fontbonne (10-6-4) .600
21. Whitman-Hanson/ Silver Lake (11-7-2) .600
22. Cathedral Springfield (10-8-2) .555
23. Cohasset/Hanover (9-9-2) .500
24. Bishop Fenwick (9-9-1) .500
25. Algonquin (9-10-1) .474
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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