The consolation game of the 46th Annual Codfish Bowl Tournament found Assumption and Wentworth facing off in the consolation game on Thursday afternoon. The Leopards were short several key players due to weather related travel issues but didn’t seem to be affected as they rolled to a 6-1 win.
“Yes we still have some guys stuck in places,” noted head coach RJ Tolan. “We should have one guy back from Michigan tomorrow and both Jamesons back from the West Coast on the second. But today we showed we have some really good young players that can step it up. Matthew Dozois had a great tournament including three assists today and Lawton MCracken scored his first collegiate goal and was solid in the defensive end. It’s a great bunch of kids and we certainly like the feeling after today’s game better than yesterday.”
The first period was really all Wentworth needed to make life miserable for Assumption. Goals by Cory Little, Cameron gibson and Dylan Barbieri in the final five minutes of the period were the reward for hard work in the Assumption end where the leopards held the shot advantage 19-9 in the first period.
Assumption took advantage on a power play early in the second period. Defenseman Mike Janson blasted a shot from the right point over the glove hand of Wentworth goalie Chris Azzano to close the deficit to 3-1 but that was all Assumption would get the rest of the way.
McCracken’s goal made it 4-1 just over halfway through the period and Assumption’s Bobby Bowden was forced to make many key saves to keep the margin at just three goals through two periods of play.
The third period saw the Leopards attacking again and two goals in a span of 13 seconds sealed the deal for Wentworth. At 16:04, Mike Paglino notched his seventh of the season off a great pass from Cory Little. Just over ten seconds later, Forrest Ellis scored his first goal on Dozois’s third helper of the day and closed out the scoring for Wentworth.
McCracken put the exclamation point on the game with a huge open ice hit on Ken Pia with just over a minute remaining that thwarted yet another Assumption rush. Typical for the day where the Greyhounds could only amass 23 shots on goal including just five in the final period.
Wentworth moves to 6-4-2 on the season and will travel to Brunswick, Maine for a non-conference game with Bowdoin on Tuesday. Assumption drops to 5-7-0 and next plays at Westfield State to open the New Year.
