Mayhem reigns as
Avon/Holbrook skates
past Rockland in chippy affair
But in the game’s final minutes, it was especially unclear how many players should’ve been on the ice for each side at certain moments as 10 players were disciplined in the final three minutes. An A-H assistant coach and a Rockland player were also ejected with 1:48 to play.
“Mayhem,” was the word A-H head coach Adam Levesque used to describe the end of the game before adding, “(It was) undisciplined hockey on both sides. That had been brewing all game. It was brewing all game and it got out of control at the end.”
Rockland coach Mike Flaherty said it was not one of his team’s better nights.
“I don’t think (the referee) properly explained who was coming in and who was not, but that’s something we have to know what’s going on,” Flaherty said. “We need to be more disciplined than that. Usually we don’t take a lot of penalties. For some reason tonight we didn’t want to play disciplined.”
But as badly behaved as the players on both teams were on Wednesday night, they collaborated for an equal-and-opposite offensive reaction on the scoreboard — including hat tricks by Liam Coyle of Avon and John Mulready of Rockland.
After A-H took a 3-1 lead into the second period, thanks to two Liam Coyle goals and another by his brother, Connor, Rockland tied the game with 10:05 to play in the second period after Mulready scored his second goal within two minutes. Liam Coyle responded 31 seconds later with his final goal before Rockland junior forward Zach Meshau tied the game at 4-4 with 3:35 left in the second period.
But A-H (11-5-2) reclaimed the lead and added to it when Pat Riordan scored with 24 seconds left in the second and his teammate, J.J. Gallagher, scored 12 seconds later.
“We fell behind and tried to keep up,” said Mulready, a freshman forward who stole the show on Rockland’s senior night. “We got back in it but let it slip away.”
And while all the traded goals made it seem as if the two teams were stealing a page from Monday night’s Boston University-Northeastern Beanpot final, Muldready said Rockland missed BU’s 5-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden.
“We had a game that night, we all missed it,” he said.
The Bulldogs (10-5-2) also had a game the night before the Beanpot, a 4-4 tie against Nashoba Regional that nevertheless clinched Rockland’s first playoff berth in five years.
“We’re very proud of that,” Flaherty said.
But Flaherty wasn’t proud of his players on Wednesday night.
“They know better,” Flaherty said. “The rule in hockey is if someone does something to you, don’t react because the refs are looking for that. My guys know that, but for whatever reason they didn’t stick to it.”
After things settled down in the final moments, Mesheau scored the game’s final point on a wrap-around goal with 53 seconds remaining.
A-H’s open-netter at the buzzer wasn’t counted on the score sheet.
“That’s the way it’s been all year,” Flaherty said. “We get down by a couple and get right back in there. We couldn’t climb all the way over the hill tonight.”
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