The Framingham Flyers and Hingham Harbormen exchanged bursts of brilliance on Monday night in skating to a 3-3 tie at Pilgrim Arena.
Framingham goaltender Alex Moore stopped 44 of the 47 shots he faced from Hingham (4-3-2), his only signs of vulnerability coming in the final two minutes of the second period and the opening two minutes of the third period.
“A sophomore goalie showed he’s the real deal tonight,” said Flyers coach Paul Spear after his team remained unbeaten on the season (4-0-3).
“As a coach, I might have had our team a little scared of Hingham given the scores they’ve had their last couple of games,” said Spear, alluding to Hingham’s 5-0 blanking of the Marshfield Rams and a 7-1 stomping of the Catholic Memorial Knights over the past week. “We were tentative in the first period, we ran around a little bit in the defensive zone, and he [Moore] kept us in the game.”
The Harbormen outshot the Flyers 47-18, including a 20-3 margin in the first period. But Framingham’s first shot of the game, off the stick of Ben Stefanini, beat Hingham goaltender Andrew Ehler to give the Flyers a lead just 29 seconds in to the opening period.
“To give them the lead starting out is not by design,” said Harbormen coach Tony Messina. “They like to play that defensive style, and they do it well. Strong goalie, blocking shots, icing it when they get in trouble. And when they have a lead, that just plays into their hands.”
Numerous chances were handed to Hingham thanks to an overbearing presence in its attacking zone and a few Framingham turnovers. These chances were either thwarted by Moore, who made great use of his glove hand on the evening, or fell through due to extra passes or unnecessary stick work by the Harbormen.
“We had a million chances and we didn’t put it away,” said Messina.
The Flyers doubled their lead over halfway through the second period, with Tyler Anes capitalizing on a pass in a 2-on-1 situation from Colton Chassie at 7:09.
“We say in practice all the time, 2-on-1’s are the difference between winning and losing,” said Spear. “We didn’t win, but we scored in a 2-on-1 tonight and we didn’t lose, and that was good.”
Continuing to by stymied by Moore, the Harbormen finally put one on the board at 13:53 of the second period on a shot from atop the slot from Tommy Kornack to cut the deficit in half.
Separated by the second intermission, Hingham’s sings of life shown through to open the third, with a pair of goals in the first 1:18 of the period. Marshall Terres redirected a Will Jones slap shot 27 seconds in to tie the game, and Chris Hennessey solved Moore once more 51 seconds later to give the Harbormen their only lead of the night.
But aside from that 2 minute, 25 second stretch spanning the second and third periods, it was Moore’s night. He continually came up big in the third, keeping the Flyers within a shot of tying the game.
Hingham less than two minutes away from escaping the night with a quick two points and extending its winning streak to three games, but Framingham captain Christian Seriac made sure it was a Flyers theft with a goal from the point at 13:37 of the third period, with Spear undoubtedly read to pull Moore for an extra attacker.
“To come in here and grab a point, we’ll take it,” said Spear. “I think that [Hingham] is probably a Super 8 team right there, I don’t know, but I’m real proud of our effort.”
Framingham returns home on Wednesday night, where they’ll face the Braintree Wamps (5-0-1, plus-26 goal differential) at 6:50 p.m. in a game that can be streamed right here on MyHockeyLive.com. The game will have serious implications in the Bay State Conference-Carey Division race, with the teams also set to play on Feb. 3 at Zapustas Arena in Randolph.
Hingham is next in action on Saturday, when they’ll host the Westford Academy Grey Ghosts (0-5-0, minus-22 goal differential) at 6 p.m. at Pilgrim.