Hingham, Mass.—Matt Egan and Matt DeMelis had five points apiece for the Hingham Harbormen in their season opening 6-2 win over the Norwood Mustangs.
Egan (2 goals, 3 assists) and DeMelis (1 goal, 4 assists) combined with linemate Billy McNally (1 goal, 2 assists) to stymie the Mustangs throughout the evening, jumping out to an early lead they wouldn’t relinquish before pulling away late at Pilgrim Arena on Monday night.
Marc O’Rourke and Will Jones also scored for the Harbormen, who are looking to get back on track after a sub-.500 season a year ago. Hingham hasn’t been to the Super 8 since 2011, an event where they were regulars from 2002-2011, save for a one year hiatus in 2007.
“We always schedule Norwood for the opening game because they always play so hard, and it’s always a close game,” said Hingham head coach Tony Messina following the game. “No matter how good they’re supposed to be, or how good we are, we never know until we play the game. And true to fashion tonight, close game right into the third period.”
The Harbormen capitalized on each of their first two power play opportunities of the night, wasting no time to boast their special teams unit on either chance. McNally scored at 2:05 of the first period, just 16 seconds into the man advantage. DeMelis’s PP goal at the 6:31 mark of the period came five seconds in.
Jake O’Rourke, who scored both Mustangs goals, cut the Hingham lead in half at 13:34 of the first, on a power play goal of his own. But a defensive breakdown in the waning seconds of the period gave Hingham its third goal of the evening at 14:53, and took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
“We just made some mental mistakes that really cost us,” said Norwood head coach Bill Clifford following the game. The Mustangs failed to muster a shot on goal for the first 13 minutes of the game, which made playing catch-up all the more difficult. “We got beat to a lot of pucks tonight, we didn’t have much support along the boards or in the corners, and they always had the odd-man rush. We were too slow getting there.”
The second power play goal of the night for Jake O’Rourke at 3:05 of the second pulled Norwood back to within one, but Hingham was able to grind out three unanswered goals to finish off the Mustangs. Egan had the Harbormen’s lone goal of the second period at 10:47, follow by his second of the night 8:46 of the third. Jones’s goal iced the game at 10:36 of the period.
“It’s a junior [McNally] and two sophomores [Egan and DeMelis],” Messina noted following the game of his top line. “They kind of got their feet wet last year, and they really have a lot of skill, so hopefully they can continue that. We put them out there a lot, and [they had] some really nice goals tonight,” Messina said.
Hingham goalie Matt Personini was playing in his first varsity game after missing all of last season with an injury. Despite the rust, Messina seemed impressed with the junior netminder.
“He did a good job. I think when they got running around on one of the power plays, he kind of lost focus of the puck. But other than that, he did a pretty good job.”
“We work hard, we grind,” said Jake O’Rourke following the game. “We don’t have those kids that are going to put up 40 points for us this year. We need everybody to step up. And I know me, as a captain, I need to prove myself. I’ve got to go out there every day and work hard, and show myself offensively, defensively, every part of the ice.”
Up next for Norwood is the Braintree Wamps on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Zapustas Arena in Randolph. The Harbormen will wait until Saturday for their next game, traveling to Wilmington to take on St. John’s Prep at Ristuccia Arena at 2:30 p.m.