Weekend sweep has Hitmen tightening hold on 1st
February 10, 2009
Wayne, NJ - Just one week removed from a disappointing 1-1-1 weekend, the Hitmen hit the road for Boston once again, this time with six points on their mind. After recouping from a nasty influenza strain that struck the team last weekend the team had a sense of urgency to solidify their 1st place EJHL standing.
On Friday night the Hitmen traveled to the New England Sports Center in Marlboro, MA for a late night tilt with the Bridgewater Bandits. The game, which was rescheduled from the NE Jr Huskies Showcase, was once again a fast paced affair. As just :6 into the game, rookie of the year candidate, Jeremy Langlois notched his 29th of the season to put the Hitmen up 1-0. That lead would last for ten minutes until John Mousso would redirect a centering pass by Jon Morrow to even the score at one. At the 5:53 mark, Will Frederick, would put the Hitmen back up 2-1 on a beautiful one-time blast that would beat Matt Hadge five hole heading into the second period.
The second stanza would pick up right where period one left off with back and forth action until at 13:36 when Pittsburgh native, Nick Rostek, would beat Jon Morrow low stick side on a centering pass to tie the game up once again. Behind a 17 save second period from Hadge, the Bandits and Hitmen would stay tied at two heading into the third. In the third, the Bandits would strike first, on a 5 on 3 powerplay, defenseman Dean Moore would blast a shot top shelf to put the Bandits up for the first time in the game, and this would ignite the Hitmen. Just three minutes later at the 8:30 mark, Hitmen captain Will Frederick would strike again, hammering home his second of the game and sending the game into overtime as the Hitmen would outshoot the Bandits 9-5 in the final period.
Knowing that they were under the gun, and having the Monarchs breathing down their neck, the Hitmen would muster all they have for that extra overtime point. At the 1:24 mark, Cory Callen would snatch that point from the Bandits on an amazing one on one move then a rifle top shelf, beating Hadge and winning the game 4-3, allowing the Hitmen to retain the EJHL top spot.
On Saturday the Hitmen continued on their road trip south to Revere, MA to face off with the much improved Boston Jr Shamrocks in a two game weekend series. This would be the first time that the Hitmen would see the Shamrocks this season. The Shamrocks, fresh off a 6-3 victory against the Bay State Breakers were riding high, but the Hitmen were looking to end their winning ways.
In game one, behind three point performances from Nick Geraci (2g, 1a) and Kevin Czepiel (3a) the Hitmen skated to a 6-2 victory. In the victory the Hitmen outshot the Shamrocks 61-18 and went 2 for 6 on the powerplay. In game two, the Hitmen came out flying again firing 22 shots at Shamrocks goaltender, Jeremy Walsh, in just the first period, and with multi-point games from Geraci (2a) and Jeremy Langlois (2a), PJ Musico notched his second victory of the weekend and 6th of the season kicking out 25 shots in the 4-1 victory.
This weekend the Hitmen will pack up the bus and head north to the South Shore Kings tournament at the Foxboro Sports Center. On the weekend the Hitmen will face the host Kings Saturday at 4pm, then the Syracuse Stars on Sunday at 11:40am, only to finish off the weekend Monday at 12:40pm against the Bay State Breakers at the Rockland Arena.