Padelford, Scalise Lead Taconic to Senior Night Win
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Rylan Padelford returned from injury to score a pair of goals Friday and lead the short-handed Taconic hockey team to a 2-0 win over McCann Tech at the Boys and Girls Club.
Thunder senior Antonio Scalise stopped 26 shots to earn the shutout win in goal on Senior Night.
“Getting Rylan back was big for us,” Taconic coach Matt Risley said. “We lost Roshan [Warriar]. He went over to Italy [on a school trip]. I had to shuffle things around. Guys get used to playing with different guys.
“But, at the end of the day, it’s a rivalry game. We’ll take a win, 2-0. They played very well. We played well. We just snuck two by her.”
Abby Fuls stopped 32 shots for the Hornets (2-13).
Taconic improved to 9-4 this winter with its third straight win, second shutout of the season and second close victory over its Berkshire County rivals. Back in December, the Thunder earned a 2-1 win up at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink in North Adams.
The rematch was another goalie duel.
It was a scoreless game until the last minute of the first period, when Padelford scored on a rebound of Fuls’ 15th save of the period. Brayden Bishop was credited with an assist.
The next goal did not come until 28 minutes later. Again it was Bishop setting up Padelford, this time for a one-timer from the left-wing faceoff circle to effectively put the game away with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left in the third.
“One of [the goals] was getting forwards to go to the net, rebound, bang it around in there, and we banged it home,” Risley said. “And the other one was a beautiful play, Bish to Rylan. It was nice that it snuck in.”
It took a great play to find a way past Fuls.
“I thought Abby played fantastic,” McCann Tech coach Matthew Parise said. “That was probably one of her best games of the year.
“But it was a good game. Two, I think, very evenly matched teams, and it could have gone either way. So I’m happy with today’s performance.”
At the other end, Scalise also was stellar, as he has been all year for the Thunder.
The lineup shuffling necessitated by the absence of Warriar, one of Taconic’s top scoring threats, created an opportunity for Scalise to be joined on the ice by Cam Laferriere, who played goal for the Thunder when Scalise was unavailable earlier this season.
“Cam gives us everything he has,” Risley said. “That’s all you can ask for. He’s a smart player. Normally, he’s back in the crease looking at everything in front of him anyway, so he knows what we’re trying to do.
“It’s kind of nice to have two thinkers out there who have seen the game in front of them and kind of directed it from there.”
McCann Tech plays its Senior Night game Saturday night in North Adams against Belchertown.
Hornets seniors Nick Abuisi, Bryce Bachand, Collin Booth, David Delisle, C.J. Diesz and Zack Gaylord joined Taconic’s Holden Kotelnicki, Jackson Molleur, Geoff Pensivy and Scalise for pregame ceremonies at center ice before Friday’s game.
Taconic closes the regular season at Easthampton on Saturday night before gearing up for Tuesday’s Western Massachusetts tournament opener against South Hadley at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield.
“We just a had a tough game with [South Hadley] up here,” Risley said “I’m looking forward to playing Easthampton tomorrow. Hopefully, we can clean a few things up, get a few more things going and head into Western Mass with some momentum.”
Photos from this game to come.