Canton Boys Ice Hockey Team Beats Stoughton in Close Game

Two teams heading in different directions faced off in a Hockomock League matchup, Monday night, as hosted and lost 4-2 at the Asiaf Rink in Brockton, in a contest that was postponed from its original February 2 date.

defeated Stoughton, 5-3, at home earlier in the season in a very tough matchup, and this time around Stoughton fell just short again.

“We’re going through a tough stretch, but I have nothing but praise for our team with this effort and in our last few games,” said Stoughton Coach Dan Mark. “All three lines and our defense played very well and our goaltending kept us in the game. We made a really good showing against a very strong team.”

The Bulldogs, winners of the Hockomock League’s Davenport (small schools) Division, raised their overall record to 12-2-2, and finish with a 10-1 league record and a perfect 6-0 division mark. Canton has four regular season games remaining, before another post-season run and defending its Division-2 State Title. The Bulldogs are next in action, hosting Bridgewater-Raynham, on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.

Stoughton’s woes continue as it dropped its seventh consecutive game and now has a record of 3-12-1 and a league mark of 2-8-1 and a 1-5-0 divisional mark. The Black Knights host a makeup game on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. against Franklin followed by three more games to wrap up the season.

Stoughton has been hampered with numerous injuries, but in its last three games has had chances to win against, Oliver Ames, and one-goal losses to Middleboro and North Attleboro, giving up all four goals against the Sachems and Rocketeers, in the final period. In its last outing, Stoughton was in a scoreless deadlock with North Attleboro, before giving up the lone goal of the game with just one minute remaining.

“Our effort has continued to be our best and we’re playing good hockey in our last few games, even without a full lineup,” said Mark. “There have been players that are now getting their chance to show us what they can do and many of them a re stepping it up which gives us a good feeling for the remainder of this season and next season, as well.”

Canton was coming off a tough two-game non-league stretch, losing against Lincoln-Sudbury and tying Hanover, and wanted to get back on track during the last week of the season.

Canton led, 3-0, after two periods, on a first period goal by T.J. Duggan and two second period goals by leading scorer Nick O’Connor and Duggan, again.

Stoughton, which has had problems in the final period throughout this season, played a strong final 15 minutes, outscoring the Bulldogs, 2-1. After Canton’s Pat Ward scored to make the score 4-0, early in the third period, Stoughton scored two goals. Larry Hixon, a junior, scored his seventh goal of the season, midway through the period, and sophomore Phil Falkof added his thirteenth goal of the season, but it was too little too late for the Black Knights. Canton outshot Stoughton, 30-14 in the game, but the undermanned Black Knights hung in until the end to give Canton all it could handle.

“We need to be peaking at the right time and we have less than two weeks to get ready for the post-season tournament,” said Canton Coach Brian Shuman. “We knew Stoughton was better than its record and always plays us tough. This was a good win and we played well both offensively and defensively.”