Bruins Recap: Brunswick Gets Key Win Over Loomis

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By Rob Adams

Sentinel Reporter

The Brunswick hockey team needed a wakeup call.

Having played Portledge to a 4-4 tie on Wednesday, the Bruins found themselves at 9-5-3, and in need of a win.

That win would need to come against Loomis-Chaffee, the seventh-ranked team in New England prep school hockey.

The Bruins would respond, with a resounding 4-1 win at Hartong Rink over the Pelicans.

“I was very proud of how the boys played tree full periods.” head coach Ron Van Belle said. “One of the points we stressed before the game was to not ‘take any shifts off’ since a team like Loomis will capitalize if you do.”

With a raucous student section on hand, the Bruins set the tone early, as Nick Van Belle found the five hole just one minute and twenty-nine seconds into the first period Van Belle’s top-line mate Charles Shaffer got one of the assist, with defenseman Cooper Moore getting the secondary marker to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

The teams settled in after that. The Pelicans’ could rely on their stopper, Adin Farhat, in net. The goalie had been playing to a .946 save percentage, and after the Van Belle goal, settled down en route to 29 saves.

The difference though was that Strauss Mann and the Bruins’ defense were on top of their game. The senior netminder turned away 33 shots as Brunswick improved to 10-5-3 on the season.

The teams retained that 1-0 score through two periods of play.

“Even in the second period when Loomis had some sustained pressure and had the momentum, we kept our heads and played good team D, staying in position, blocking shots, etc,” Ron Van Belle said. “The kind of things you need to do to win the big games.”

Ron Van Belle liked where things were after two periods. Nick Van Belle made him like it even more early in the thrird.

The top line of Nick Van Belle, Shaffer, and Christian LeSueur responded just forty seconds into the final session, as Van Belle beat Farhat to make it a 2-0 game.

If there was any doubt about Brunswick, that was resolved at 3:30, as Jack Forrest, with assists from Aaron Aboody and Nick Boardman, found the back of the net to make it 3-0.

Now the Bruins just had to hold on.

A goal from Harrison Roy got Loomis-Chaffee on the board at 6:23, calling the lead into slight doubt at 3-1.

LeSueur made sure the issue was resolved at 16:57, as he rang the bell with an empty-net goal. Van Belle (his third point of the game) and Patrick Burkinshaw had the assists for the Bruins.

The head coach wanted to make sure that the crowd received some credit as well.

“We are 26-2-2 at home since the beginning of the 14-15 season, and a lot of that has to do with the great energy brought by our student section on nights like Friday,” Coach Van Belle said.

The weekend wouldn’t be perfect, however, as Brunswick traveled to Williston Northampton on Saturday and lost 1-0. The goal came late in the third period. The Bruins picked up their eleventh win of the year on Monday, at Salisbury, 4-2. The win was the 200th for Van Belle at Brunswick.

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