A three-goal third period propelled the Greenfield hockey team past Amherst, 4-2, Saturday at Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield.
Aidan Roche tallied a pair of goals in the win, with Sammy Knight and Shane Prusak also finding the back of the net for the Green Wave.
Wave goalie Joshua Bordeaux came up with 19 saves. Greenfield had the majority of opportunities on the offensive end, finishing with a 39-21 shot advantage.
“Two games in it seems like once we pop one in the back of the net, we pop a handful right after,” Green Wave coach Adam Bouchard said. “It was a great high school hockey game.”
Roche got Greenfield going in the second period. Trailing 1-0 after a Georgios Alimionos goal in the first period for the Hurricane, Roche evened the score on the power-play. His goal was set up by Kyle Barnes and Derek Lenois, who found Roche wide open back door for a tap-in goal.
Just two minutes later, Roche broke up a play at the blue line, used his speed to get behind the Amherst defense for a breakaway and buried the shot to put the Wave up 2-1.
“We came out pumping with great determination and leadership in the second period from Aidan Roche,” Bouchard said. “He really stepped up and played the dominant type of hockey we’re looking for from our senior leaders. He played like the senior he is.”
Two minutes later, the line of Prusak, Devin Niles and Knight connected on a tic-tac-toe play that resulted in Prusak sitting in front of an empty net for a goal.
Amherst wasn’t going away easy though, as Kouji Ishida busted down the wall in the third period, setting up Joseph Freniere for a goal to cut the lead to 3-2.
“It was a great play,” Bouchard said. “Sometimes you have to tip your hat and say great goal. There was nothing we could do about it, it was a great hockey play.”
Roche picked up a penalty with 2:44 to play, with the penalty served by Knight. The Hurricanes went in full attack mode to try to tie the game up late, but the Greenfield penalty kill unit killed off its fifth penalty of the day to preserve the lead.
After the kill, Barnes chipped the puck up to Knight out of the box who buried a breakaway with 40 seconds left to preserve a 4-2 victory.
“We take great pride in our special teams,” Bouchard said. “Teams are 2-for-10 against our penalty kill this year. The PK is only as good as our backstop and Bordeaux made a decent amount of difficult saves when we were man-down, especially on the last penalty.”
The Green Wave are back in action Wednesday, taking on Southwick on the road, with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
For the first time in program history, the Amherst Nordic ski team hosted a race, taking on Mohawk Trail at Cherry Hill Golf Course.
Mohawk Trail’s Katarzyna Wisnauckas recorded her third consecutive victory on the girls side, finishing in a time of 13:12 in the 4K course as the Warriors came away with a 10-28 victory.
Mohawk Trail had the top four finishers, with Sylvie Mahon-Moore placing second with a time of 13:58, Eleanor Meunier taking third (14:38) and Kala Garrido’s time of 15:17 good for fourth place.
Brooke Looman placed seventh (17:10) and Alex Lilly took 10th (17:42).
Zoey Candito (16:05) was the top Hurricane finisher, followed by Maddy Parker (16:58), Ave Zimmermann (17:12) and Rebecca Marshall (17:37).
In the boys race, Mohawk Trail’s Dennis Simmons placed second with a time of 12:51, but it was Amherst that took home a 15-22 team victory.
Warrior West Williams took fifth (13:27), Vincent Gauthier placed sixth (13:28) and Augustus Niswonger finished in ninth place (14:47).
Hurricane Ryan Yanko was the top finisher on the boys side, finishing the course in a time of 12:47, finishing just four seconds ahead of Simmons.
Kyle Yanko took third for Amherst with a time of 13:04, followed by teammate Owen Candito finishing in fourth place (13:11).
Rounding out the top 10 finishers for the Hurricanes was Taylor Hanson (13:39), Max Rogoski (14:02) and Cian Gahan (14:56).
Mohawk Trail and Amherst won’t meet again next weekend, with many skiers participating in the NENSA Massachusetts U16 and Eastern High School Championship in Weston next Saturday.