TAUNTON, Mass. - After cruising to two non-league wins over New Bedford and Durfee, the Taunton Tigers were brought back down to earth Tuesday night in Taunton. The Attleboro Blue Bombardiers scored two shorthanded goals in 11 seconds on their way to a 6-1 win.
After a back and forth, physical first period that ended with just a Nick Miniati goal for Attleboro, the Bombardiers quickly extended the lead in the second. In the final minute of the first period, a major penalty for roughing to Attleboro’s Chad Nadeau and three other matching penalties made it 4-on-4 for 1:30, followed by 2:30 of Taunton power play. But instead of Taunton getting a boost from an extended man advantage, the Blue Bombardiers put the game away early in the period. Just six seconds in, Luke Chomyszak put Attleboro up 2-0 with a 4-on-4 goal. Once Taunton’s Tyler Whalon exited the box, Taunton went on the power play, but you wouldn’t know it by Attleboro’s play. Cam Richard netted a shorthanded goal, and 11 seconds later, Keagin Larkin put the Bombardiers up 4-1 with 11:51 remaining in the second period.
“You could see the air come out of Taunton a little bit, that was huge,” said Attleboro head coach Mike Cripps on the back-to-back goals.
Travis Tanguay added a goal later in the period and Keagin Larkin scored his second of the game at the end of the third period. Richard, Zach Larkin (2), and Wil McKenzie picked up assists in the Attleboro victory.
Zack Cabral scored a power play goal, his third of the season, for Taunton’s only score of the night. Cabral said after the loss that “the score doesn’t tell the story of the game.”
Taunton Head Coach Kris Metea focused on the three minute lapse in the second period that led to the loss.
“You’re going to experience your highs and you’re going to experience your lows and you’re going to have your disappointments and your moments of ecstasy,” Metea said. “It was evident in tonight’s game, we did well at certain points, and we had our little let down for about three minutes, and had our low.”
Taunton’s goalie Cam Pitts, who carried a shutout streak of 47:11 into the game along with a 1.00 goals against average, was replaced following the two quick goals in the second period. Luke Bilodeau came on in relief and played very well, stopping two breakaways and allowing two goals on 12 shots in just over a period and a half.
Metea has been pleased with his goalie tandem, saying “Pittsy is the future, he is only a sophomore so he’s got his junior and senior seasons to look forward to and develop for. Luke has taken on the role and continues to support Pittsy, he’ll be there and be ready to go when needed.”
“It was definitely a game that we wanted to win, so I was very happy with the play in the second and third periods, and we kind of turned it around after they had it going at the end of the first period, but we’re trying to build momentum here,” Cripps said.
Taunton, now 2-1, will play again on Saturday afternoon when they host Milford at 2:00 PM, and Attleboro, who improved to 3-2-1, will host Stoughton just over two hours later at Aleixo Rink in Taunton.
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