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Sifferlen gives North Andover win over Methuen

Thursday, December, 13 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

METHUEN | Methuen was just minutes away from what would have been nothing short of a huge opening-night upset. The Rangers held a one-goal lead for 30 minutes before North Andover came storming back with two goals in the final 3:13 to down the Rangers, 2-1, in front of a cold and noisy crowd.

"Overall, for a first game, to come back and win is huge," said North Andover head coach Denis Barrette. "I'm sure it will give us a little bit of a boost. But, I need to remind our guys that we lost the first two periods. Give credit to Methuen, they outplayed us for two periods. Coming back in the third shows our guys what comes when you work hard. We talked about that after the second period, working hard always pays off."

Methuen took the lead with 2:43 left in the first period. A.J. DiNuccio dangled the puck through two defenders and slid a backhand shot through the legs of North Andover goalie Ryan Whyte (19 saves) to give the Rangers the lead, 1-0.

The Rangers held the lead for most of the game, thanks to junior goaltender Jonathan Borden (30 saves), who came up with big stop after big stop. He made his biggest saves on North Andover's six power plays, as Methuen had trouble staying out of the penalty box.

"I'm very concerned about the penalties," said Denny Egan, who was behind the bench for the first time as the Rangers' bench boss. "I don't expect that many penalties again, it will be addressed. Borden played well to keep the lead for us. That's a game that I thought we should at least get a tie, we were one chip away.

"When you take that many penalties, guys get tired. You use the same players on the penalty kill, and those guys will tire if they are out there all the time. That's what happened to us tonight."

After outshooting the Rangers 19-13 through two periods, North Andover turned up the heat in the third period with 13 shots. Just 2:58 into the period, it appeared as if they had tied the game, but despite the Knights' celebration, the puck hadn't crossed the line. Four minutes later, sophomore Brian Amor slapped a one-timer from the slot, but Borden snatched it out of the air with his glove to keep the lead intact for Methuen.

North Andover finally broke through with 3:13 remaining, when Ryan Sifferlen crashed the net and fired the puck through a barrage of fallen bodies in front, and through a sprawled Borden.

With just 18 seconds remaining, Amor made good on his next chance, blowing past an overly aggressive Methuen defender before sweeping the puck around Borden's pad to secure the win.

"We had a little more desperation at the end, but we need that for 45 minutes," Barrette said. "We didn't have that desperation when we started. We had plenty of chances all game, especially on the power play, but we had no one around the net getting rebounds. We played with a lot of desperation at the end of the game, but we need to play like that the whole game."