Boys' Hockey Goes to Salem

Record: 15-9-5 Boys’ varsity hockey finished off their season with a seminals appearance in theNew England Large School Championships and a 15-9-5 record. With thegraduation of 12 seniors and two NHL draft picks from last year’s team, theseason was expected by many to be an off-year for the boys. Instead, underthe guidance of senior captains John Cross, Mac Flaherty and Chris Keating, theteam picked up 15 wins, including one at Andover, and nished the season ranked13th in the entire New England Prep school league. “This season was a hell of a goodyear. We graduated such a terrific class last year that I was a bit worried,” headcoach Dana Barbin said, “but the team came together and exceeded expectations."Lower Michel Lackey agreed. “A lot of critics, scouts and coaches weren’t expectingmuch from us this season, especially compared to our team last year,” he said. “Wedefinitely proved them wrong.”The seasons started off rough for the boys, and after the first six games the teamhad a 2-2-2 record, including a 2-6 loss to Cushing Academy, who nished the seasonranked eighth in the prep school league. After that game, however, the teamrefocused and rattled off four wins in ve games, including an impressive 4-3 victoryover Dexter School, who was undefeated at that point in the season. Undaunted bythe prospect of facing off against a top team at Harvard University’s Bright HockeyCenter, the boys stepped into the spotlight and played terri cally in front of manyformer Big Red hockey players.“The game at Harvard was definitely a highlight of the season since Dexter wasundefeated and we were still trying to prove ourselves,” upper Pat Quinn said.“I think we showed that we can play with and beat anybody, and can do it on thebiggest of stages.”After the streak ended with a loss to Governor’s Academy, the boys traveled to rivalPhillips Andover’s arena to face off with Big Blue for the first time of the season. In agame that was intense to the point that a fight almost broke out, Big Red came out ontop thanks to stalwart defense backed by a phenomenal effort by keeper Michael Lackey.“Lackey did a really good job in goal throughout the season, especially as a young player,”Barbin said. “Beating Andover at their place—it doesn’t get much better than that.”Throughout the season the team had a knack for bouncing back and playing wellafter tough losses. In the middle of the season, three games after defeating Andover, astrong Kimball Union team hit the boys hard, defeating Big Red 0-8. Three days later,however, the team dominated Cushing Academy 6-3.“We had just had a really bad game against Kimball Union, but I think we realizedwe played with low energy the previous game. At that point we turned it around,” Keatingsaid. “We went on to defeat Cushing, who had beaten us badly earlier in the season.”Again, after a 2-5 overtime loss to Holderness School later in the season, the boysbounced back to defeat Milton Academy at home 5-1, a good team that they wouldface again in the playoffs. Another particularly memorable win was the game againstHotchkiss, in which Big Red was down by one goal with a minute left before upperCody Rorick got two goals in the span of 20 seconds to win the team the game.Despite a loss to Andover on E/a weekend, the boys nished out the season strong.As the number- ve seed in the Large School tournament, Big Red doubled up MiltonAcademy 6-3 in the quarter nals and lost a hard fought semi nal game to Cushing 2-4,with the Purple Penguins putting home an empty-netter at the end.With the loss to Cushing, the boys nished their season with a 15-9-5 record. Oneof the team’s strengths was its balanced offense. Although lacking the star power thatlast year’s team had, this year Big Red had four players above 30 points and many otherswho contributed to an offense that, when working together, was powerful enoughto match the repower of any team in New England.Leading the scoring was senior Colby Cretella, who racked up 19 goals in additionto 18 assists. Cretella’s linemates Cross and senior Jake Lessick helped set upmany of those goals, getting 22 assists each as well as contributing 11 and 15 goals,respectively. “Cross was the engine of our team offensively, and Cretella, Lessick and[senior Patrick] Lackey came in as PGs and did a great job making plays and poweringour offense,” Quinn said.Patrick Lackey, respected by his teammates for his incredible hustle, also scored15 goals throughout the season and poured in 16 assists. “Pat Lackey and Colby reallystepped up as the season went on; they really stepped into an on-ice lead by examplerole,” Keating said. Cretella and Pat Lackey earned recognition for their contributionson and off the ice this season as they won the Lloyd Bishop Hockey Trophy and wereelected the team’s Most Valuable Players.In addition, uppers Rorick, Quinn and Kyle Alexander and lower Stanley Brennerrounded out the core group of offensive players. All will be looked to next season todo more of the heavy lifting offensively.Flaherty and Keating were the team’s defensive backbone, anchoring a defensethat allowed just over two and a half goals per game. “Chris and Mac on defense weretough and consistent,” Barbin said. “[The captains] were dynamite, great leaders, theirwork ethic and ghting spirit led the way.”“The captains were great in the locker room, always making sure everyone was inthe right mind frame for the game,” Quinn said. “We had a young team this year, butthe captains did a good job taking care of the younger guys.”The captains, as well as upper defensemen Austin Fruchter and Gif n Py, werestrong in front of goaltender Michael Lackey, who stepped up into the starting rolewell even though it was only his rst year on the team. The group combined for fourshutouts, highlighted by a particularly impressive effort by both the defense and thegoalie in the game against St. Sebastian’s Country Day School, which Big Red won 3-0.“Usually the defense did a great job of making my life easy,” Michael Lackeysaid. “With Mac and Keats on defense, forwards found themselves scared to carry thepuck into our zone.” Big Red will miss Lackey next year as he moves on from Exeterto compete in the United States Hockey League, the nation’s top level of junior leaguehockey. Big Red’s young ‘tender was selected to play for the USA National TeamDevelopment Program, which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich.Although the captains have not been announced yet, the team is looking strong fornext year. Offensively the team is graduating the top four scorers, and so will expectmore from Rorick, Quinn, Alexander and the younger forwards. “The team is de nitelygoing to need some offensive threats to step up, but I have full con dence that theycan,” Keating said. “Defensively, although we are losing our goalie, I think the teamwill be solid for a couple seasons ahead with the hard working, talented young playerswe have at the blue line.”“I am upset I won’t get to be a part of the team next year. It’s a great group of guyswith a lot of talent and a fun locker room atmosphere,” Michael Lackey said.