Kearney leads Monarchs to 7-3 win over Harbor Wolves

Hooksett, NH - The New Hampshire Junior Monarchs cruised to their league leading 34th regular season win Sunday afternoon, beating the Boston Harbor Wolves 7-3 on the shoulders of Yale bound Denny Kearney (pictured left). Kearney would begin his afternoon with an assist on a goal by Eric Baier just 17 seconds into the opening period. Rochester native Tom Pizzo would score four minutes later to make it 2-0 Monarchs, with Rence Coassin and Ansil Ivens-Anderson assisting on the even strength tally. It certainly looked like the onslaught was on until the Harbor Wolves struck back at 9:24 of the first period when Horrigan converted on a nice feed by Vitale to get Boston back within one. Less than two minutes later it was Vitale picking up his second point of the evening this time on the power play, coming off a nice feed from Liu to even the score up at two apiece.

Kearney directed the momentum back to the Monarchs side scoring a power play goal of his own at 11:15 of the first, with Coassin and Germain assisting on the play. Less than two minutes later Coassin found the twine on a highlight reel pass from Kearney at the side of the goal mouth to put the home squad up 4-2. At the 17:47 mark of the first stanza, it was Kearney again, scoring his 20th goal of the year and second of the afternoon to give the Monarchs a comfortable lead heading into the second period.

Coach Corkum had this to say about Kearney, “Denny has the hands, deception and puck protecting ability that I have not seen at this level. He is an absolute force down low and is so tough to knock off the puck, couple that with the great vision he possesses and the ability to get the puck to the open man. He will have a huge impact next year at Yale. The stronger he gets the better this young man will be. He is fun to watch.”

The second period began with each team trading chances, none of the grade ‘A’ variety. Ivens-Anderson broke the ice 9:55 into the period scoring a power play goal with Coassin and Kearney picking up the assists. Kearney with his third assist of the evening moved into a tie in the EJHL scoring race with teammate Paul Thompson with 68 points. Coassin also picking up his third assist and fourth point of the evening played a strong game offensively as well as defensively for the Monarchs. Pat Knowlton would add another goal at the 15:13 mark with Germain and O’Connor assisting, essentially ending any hope s of a comeback by the visiting Wolves. Roberts would score with less than two minutes to play to give the Wolves something to build on for the next game when these teams meet again 8pm Friday night at the Foxboro Showcase.