MARLBOROUGH – The Marlborough High School boys hockey team continued its parade of victories on Saturday with a 8-0 win over Lexington.
In a season that has now seen them amass a 13-0-1 record, this final score marked one of the Panthers’ largest margins of victory yet, providing a proverbial exclamation point as the team pivots toward postseason play.
Five-goal second period cements victory
Marlborough opened the scoring in the first period of this game with a goal by Marcus Chrisafideis.
The offense quieted from there though, rounding out the period with a one-goal lead.
“The first period, we didn’t seem to have our legs going and we weren’t moving very well,” head coach Mike O’Brien said of the start. “That wasn’t a very good period for us.”
Things changed after the first intermission, with Marlborough pouncing on Lexington as the second period got underway.
Mark Evangelous potted a pair of goals. Teammate Jeremy Lacroix then followed 24 seconds after Evangelous’ second goal, scoring to improve Marlborough’s lead to 4-0.
Noah Lind and Sam Miele added goals before the end of the second period, sending the teams to the third period with Marlborough ahead 6-0.
Chrisafideis scored two more times in this game, securing a hat trick and dispatching Lexington while goalie Matt Lacroix held firm for the shutout.
Coach talks adjustments ahead of postseason
Marlborough now has one regular season game left on its schedule before it is set to begin the Central Massachusetts playoffs.
Ranked first overall in the state’s Division III hockey power ranking system, Marlborough enters upcoming postseason brackets as a juggernaut.
For O’Brien, though, there remains room for improvement.
“We’ve got to be ready to play every night,” he said. “We can’t just focus on waiting for something good to happen, especially this late in the season.”
While a five-goal second period against Lexington was worth celebrating, O’Brien said, that slower first period was also of note.
“If you don’t get off to a great start in any of those [playoff] games, you’re going to be out of the tournament pretty quick,” he said. “So, for us now, it’s about building toward playing three solid periods of hockey.”
‘We’re going to have to grind things out’
The Panthers boys hockey squad will, indeed, conclude its regular season on Wednesday with a rivalry game against Hudson.
From there, it will howl into the postseason as local hockey fans hope for a deep playoff run.
O’Brien and his players have similar goals for the remainder of their season.
They don’t, however, see big wins coming easy.
“We’re going to have to grind things out,” O’Brien said.
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