The St. Michael’s Buzzers met the Dixie Beehives on Saturday for the second consecutive night after handing them a 2-1 loss on Friday at St. Michael’s College School Arena. Clearly, coming into a busy weekend of three games in three nights – two against the Beehives followed by a contest against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens on Sunday night at Chesswood Arena, a rink they have not experienced any kind of success in lately – it was critical to come away with four points against the Beehives, a team that sits well back of the Buzzers in the West Division standings.
While Saturday’s effort could hardly be considered one of their best, the Buzzers were able to finish strong after a slow start to the game, led by the hat trick effort of Mike Neville, eventually skating away with a 6-3 victory.
“Two wins is two wins for us and we’ll take that,” said Buzzers’ Head Coach Mike DePellegrin. “The first game on Friday night was a very ugly win, tonight was a little bit better. The positive we take out of it was I thought that in the third period, we really got our legs going and we started to control the play for the first time in six periods against these guys. It was a good finish for us.”
The start seemed alright in the early going for St. Michael’s as they got out to a 1-0 lead at the 14:11 mark of the first period when Mike Neville scored on the power play. Late in the period though, an ill advised line change led to a defensive breakdown, allowing Manny Gialedakis to tie the game.
“I didn’t think the first period was our best, it wasn’t that bad but it was a little below our average,” said DePellegrin. “We could have started better that’s for sure but it was a poor way to end the period with a bad line change and the goal at the end was just a disappointing way to finish the period.”
Early in the second period, the Buzzers, after failing to back check, gave up an odd man rush which resulted in the Beehives taking their first lead of the game when Kelby Lorenz scored fifty two seconds in.
St. Michael’s quickly responded midway through the frame with a pair of goals in just over a minute to retake the lead. After taking a drop pass from former Beehive Mike Capicotto at the offensive blueline, Dan Cameron walked in and beat Dixie netminder Michael D’Angelo with a hard wrist shot for his eighth goal of the season. Jesse Beamish gave St. Michael’s the lead back at the 8:57 mark after stepping into the slot and beating D’Angelo with another good wrist shot. Before the end of the period at the 17:44 mark, Mike Neville scored his second power play goal of the game to give the Buzzers some insurance.
Midway through the third period, Thomas Nosella brought the Beehives back to within one goal but Mike Neville quickly restored the two goal cushion forty one seconds later to complete his hat trick effort – the first of his Junior A career.
“It was awesome, I was just trying to get to the net and do the best I can and pitch in offensively as much as I can,” said Neville. “I’m playing with Dan Ciampini and Jesse Beamish, two really great players, so it helps a lot because they compliment me really well.”
Consistently, one of the Buzzers best players away from the puck all season long, Neville is starting to contribute at the offensive end lately as well with six points in his last five games including his hat trick against the Beehives.
“Defensively he has always been there since the start of the year so we’re really pleased that now he’s starting to put some points up,” said DePellegrin. “He had a really good night tonight.”
Buzzers’ netminder Jon Loparco was strong for the third consecutive game, turning aside fifteen of eighteen shots faced for his third win of the season.
Neville explained that earning four points against the Beehives was an important accomplishment, leaving the Buzzers now nine points up on the Upper Canada Patriots for the last playoff spot in the West Division but alluded to the weekend’s final game against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens as a big test for St. Michael’s. In three previous meetings, the Buzzers have given up twenty one goals to the Jr. Canadiens, losing all three match ups.
“It was pretty good for us; the first game against Dixie was a little so-so but tonight, we had a lot better effort,” said Neville. “We’re really looking forward to Sunday against the Jr. Canadiens though, that’s a huge game for us.”
