Whalers hockey team wins in exciting finish
BY STEVE SHEPPARD
The first game of the season was a barn burner for the Whalers hockey team as three goals were scored by both teams in the last twoand a-half minutes and freshman Taylor Thayer put it away on a power play goal with 36 seconds left in the contest. Nantucket overcame the Dennis-Yarmouth threat, 4-3.

Whaler captain Harry Robishaw scores one of his two goals against Dennis-Yarmouth.

“This was great,” said head coach Rand Smith. “Our team put on a lot of heat and didn’t give up.”

Down 1-0 after the first period, the Whalers got on the scoreboard in the second stanza when captain Harry Robishaw scored an unassisted goal. The Whalers didn’t score again in the period, leaving the fun for the third, when they would score three.

First, Robishaw scored another unassisted goal to tie the game at 2. Then the clock ticked down to the two-and-a-half minute mark.

At that point, Nantucket went up 3-2 when Chris Ray, on an assist from Ethan Bell, put one past the DYnetminder. Less than a minute later, with 1:34 to go in the game, Dennis- Yarmouth tied it at 3.

At the 56 second mark, D-Y was called for roughing. Thayer skated all the way up the ice on the power play, got off a shot that Robishaw was able to collect and pass back to Thayer for the score with 36.1 seconds remaining.

“Taylor showed great poise on that play,” Smith said.

The game also showed how far the team has come in only its second year of existence. “I didn’t expect us to have the third period we had,” Smith said. “We didn’t run out of gas. I liked that we were moving the puck and didn’t get in trouble.”

With the season just beginning, Smith says conditions on the ice should continue to improve.

“I thought we were going to be a good team,” he said, “but thinking it and seeing it are two different things.”

I