ties Wilmington, beats Stoneham

Published January 10, 2020

By JENNIFER GENTILE

MELROSE—It hasn’t been the easiest of roads, but the Melrose Red Raider hockey team is getting the job done in the Middlesex League with a 2-2-1 record (2-3-2 overall) thanks to a week of play that saw them tie Wilmington and beat Stoneham. 

Melrose kicked off 2020 with a New Year’s Day draw against Wilmington, 2-2, in an exciting game at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington. It was a hard-fought battle between two league rivals, complete with back and forth action throughout the game. Wilmington’s Joe Hill struck first early in the game to give the Wildcats a brief 1-0 lead before Melrose’s Will Pierce tied it up 1-1 on an unassisted goal. The game remained tied with Melrose dominating most of the possession and Wilmington not capitalizing on a power play. Melrose took a 2-1 lead five minutes into the third thanks to sophomore TJ Sullivan, who earned his first varsity goal, on assists by Cam Gorman and Kevin O’Keefe. Wilmington’s Joe Hill struck again with the equalizer in the third to make it 2-2, after which both teams battled to a draw to call it a day. 

TJ SULLIVAN earned a goal for the Red Raiders in their 2-2 tie against Wilmington. (Jeff Maté)

Melrose goalie Nick Sicurella had a strong game, particularly at the end when fending off a slew of Wildcat power play shots to help preserve the tie. Wilmington goalie Anthony Cuozzo also had a strong day with 36 saves. 

Coach Vin Mirsalo credited Melrose for a solid showing. “The effort was good. It was one of our better wins in a long time. Wilmington has one of the best goalies in the league so they made it hard for us to get on the board. But I thought our third line of TJ Sullivan, Cam Gorman and Kevin O’Keefe has really come through for us in the past few games.”

That was also the case when Melrose beat Stoneham with a 3-1 victory on Saturday at Stoneham Arena. It was a must-win game for Melrose and helped them secure a current second-place standing behind Burlington in the ML Freedom League. Melrose outshot Stoneham overall, taking about 40 against the Spartans, and saw an early goal by Cam Marks set the pace, thanks to assists by Andy Calvert and Brendan Fennell, which gave Melrose a 1-0 lead. Fennell then found the net, assisted by Calvert and Marks, to give Melrose a 2-1 lead at the half. Fennell finished the job off in the third on an empty netter to give Melrose a 3-1 victory. 

“The last two efforts have been good,” said Mirasolo. “But we have a lot of work to do, like keeping the ball in the offensive zone. We need to improve our offensive production and make things a little easier for our defense. Mostly, I’d like to see us take the individuality of the game and mesh together as a team and play with a sense of urgency. We haven’t hit our stride yet, but we will be fine.”

Another key league game comes this Saturday when they host Wakefield at the Stoneham Arena at 4:00 p.m. 

Middlesex Freedom Standings                         

Burlington    4-1   

Melrose       2-2-1 

Wilmington  1-2-1   

Wakefield    1-3-0 

Stoneham    0-3-0