L/A fired 46 shots on goal and had five different players score to solve Montecalvo and defeat the Minutemen, 5-1.
“We’re just knowing where each other is, making good passes and crashing the net,” said Andrew McCormick, who scored the third L/A goal.
Crewz Berry and McCormick scored in the final 57 seconds of the second period to break a 1-1 tie. L/A (6-1-0) followed that with a third period in which it didn’t allow a shot on its goalie, Chris Schmitt (11 saves).
Kyle Secor added a power play goal and JP Chauvin capped the scoring in the third period.
“It’s good (to spread out the scoring), with all of the injuries,” said L/A coach Rod Simmons, who lost forward Dan Espe to a concussion suffered during practice earlier in the week and may have lost forward Matt Siegel to an injury Sunday. “We have a quick turnaround, play (Monday) at noon in Biddeford (against the Maine Wild).”
Trailing 1-0 late in the second period, East Coast appeared poised to squander a 5-on-3 until a bad change by the Fighting Spirit after freeing one skater from the penalty box allowed Nick Padgett to collect the puck near L/A’s blue line, walk in all alone to Schmitt’s left and beat him top shelf to tie it.
“You want to get that stuff out of the way early in the year,” Simmons said of the miscommunication on the line change. “You’ve got a 1-0 lead, you can’t have problems on the bench on who’s supposed to be on the ice. They’re young. They’ll figure it out.”
Montecalvo (41 saves) made a couple of outstanding saves to preserve the tie until Berry tucked in Secor’s shot with 57 seconds remaining in the period.
“(Clayton Thomas) passed it to the slot, (Secor) shot it and the goalie blocked it and dropped it, so I just shoved it in,” Berry said. “We had lots of rebounds.”
“I thought their goaltender played real well,” Simmons said. “It helps when we put it in his chest a lot.”
McCormick added the insurance goal 42 seconds later. After stealing the puck near his own blue line, he broke away down the left wing, fired a wrister from the circle that hit the far post, then followed it in under Montecalvo’s glove.
L/A peppered Montecalvo with 14 shots in each of the first two periods, but had to wait awhile to be rewarded.
Montecalvo denied Andrew McCormick from point-blank range early, then closed the five-hole on Clifford Ogle as the L/A winger tried to flick in a rebound from the doorstep.
The Fighting Spirit turned up the pressure late in the period and finally broke through at 18:31 of the first when Dylan Vrees followed Patrick Halpin’s shot.
“The first period was a little sluggish for us. I thought we picked it up a little in the second and third,” Simmons said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
