Stone Devlin entered his final high school hockey game needing three points to reach the 100-point mark for his career, and he wasn’t concerned at all with whether he got there or not. More important to him than the individual accomplishment was the one his team had in mind, defeating rival Barnstable to win the Cape Cup in the Cape and Islands League tournament.
“I just wanted to win the game,” Devlin said with a big smile hidden behind his mask. “We got it done, for sure. That was the ‘funnest’ game I’ve played.”
Devlin led the way to the championship and got to 100 points by scoring a hat trick as the Clippers took down Barnstable by a 4-0 score. Devlin netted a goal in each period, and Kyle Souza had one as well for FHS. Sophomore goalie Jack Braga played one of his best games of the year to record the shutout with 19 saves.
“I give (Stone) so much credit. It had to be weighing on him. I like the team effort, we came out a little slow, but the back end played so well, the team played well. It was a team effort. We got some big minutes out of our third line, and we needed that, but Stoney was (excellent),” head coach Paul Moore said.
Braga kept Falmouth in the game through a first period in which the team was back on its heels for most of the frame. He stopped all eight shots he saw in the opening frame, including a breakaway by Colby Pearsall that would have put BHS on top.
The whole game changed in the final minute of the first though, when the Clippers scored a pair of goals just 17 seconds apart to turn a scoreless contest into a 2-0 lead heading into the locker rooms. The first was scored by Devlin off of a beautiful diagonal feed from Harry Hennessy in the right wing circle down to the bottom of the left circle where Devlin rifled it past Connor Higgins. Seconds later Souza scored to make it 2-0, as he let a shot go from the left point. The initial bid by the junior was blocked, but the carom came right back to him, and he sent it back at the goal, getting through traffic and Higgins’ five-hole at 14:25.
Devlin picked up career point number 99 in the second period with a beautiful snipe that beat Higgins over the shoulder and under the crossbar. Hennessy and Max McDonald, his senior linemates who were also playing their swan songs for FHS, assisted on the play.
In the third period, with Falmouth clamping down on BHS and owning the ice, the only real drama left was whether or not Devlin would get the last point he needed to join the exclusive Century Club. He got it, in an unorthodox fashion. The puck found him in the low slot, and he saw it, and chopped it to the net. The puck trickled through and under Higgins for a 4-0 lead, and got him to 100 points. While the senior claimed he was not thinking about it, it was evident that he was very excited as he pumped his fists and gave everyone on the bench an exuberant high-five as he skated by.
After the game, he said he was happy to have done it, but that wasn’t why he was so excited.
“I live for these games, everyone does. Championship against Barnstable, it can’t get any better than that,” Devlin said.
He said getting the win over Barnstable meant so much more.
“Beating Barnstable (is better), for sure. One more time with the boys,” he said with a smile in his eyes.
The fact that his career is over, that was the one part he did not like.
“It’s sad, last game in this rink. I loved playing here for four years, but on to the next chapter,” said Devlin, who plans to play a post-grad year at Bridgton Academy next year. “I’ve played against (Barnstable) since Mites. We’ve grown up together through the programs. I love those kids, but when the puck drops, it’s every man for himself.”
https://ift.tt/3dORRMC
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar