BROCKTON, Mass – Stoughton scored first, but Milford responded with four straight before each team tallied a late third period goal, giving Milford a 5-2 win over Stoughton on Saturday night.
Stoughton junior Brandon Lima finished off a rebound for the first goal of the game just 51 seconds into the second period. Stoughton kept their lead for over 10 minutes. Milford was able to tie it when senior Griffin Colpitts was able to tip a shot from Sean Burns to knot the game at one.
“It did, absolutely,” Milford head coach Mike Balzarini said of Stoughton’s goal waking his team up. “When they scored that, the bench got a little bit riled up. We didn’t want the same thing that happened against Hopkinton happen tonight.”
Stoughton had a chance to regain the lead late in the second when they went on the power play. But instead of the extra man helping, Milford was the team that capitalized.
Junior Brad White intercepted a Stoughton clearance attempt and took the puck in alone on with Stoughton goalie PJ Sheehan. White deked right, left, and then finished back to the right to give Milford their first lead.
“I was able to read the play and lucky enough he shot it right into my skates,” White said. “I was able to take it and put a nice move on the goalie and score.”
Milford was able to tack on another short-handed goal with just 9.1 seconds left in the period, when Jared Balzarini’s back hander – and eventual game winner – found the back of the net.
“Today we were able to find each other pretty well, better than most games,” White said of the first line of himself, Balzarini and Colpitts.
Just over five minutes into the third period, junior Matt Nilan was able to get a piece of a bouncing puck and get it past Sheehan, leading the Hawks to a 4-1 lead.
After a Stoughton timeout, the Black Knights came out with a little more pep in their step and freshman Mark Sheehan’s back hander wrap around goal cut the lead to two at 4-2 with 3:22 left.
White iced the game though, batting home a rebound off another Burns shot, extending Milford’s lead back to three at 5-2 with 1:07 left.
“He made some really great decisions with the puck,” Balzarini said of White. “I thought my top line moved the puck exceptionally well. Going down low and looking for the points. Shots came from the point and they were creating traffic in the front.”
In the loss, the goalie Sheehan made 48 saves. In two games against Milford this year, he has made 108 saves with ten goals allowed.
“He’s just a great goalie,” Balzarini ”I was surprised we got two short-handed goals against him. To get two shorthanded goals against him was huge for us.”
“He’s a very good goalie, he robbed me a couple times,” White said.
Stoughton will look to bounce back when they host red-hot Canton on Wednesday. Milford will be back at Asiaf on Wednesday, this time to play Oliver Ames in the game after Stoughton against Canton.