Poor first period hurts Minutemen …
- Jan 23
- 2 min read
In the two games leading up to Stoneham—both wins—the Minutemen came out flying, built early leads, and immediately put opponents on their heels. That’s a proven recipe for winning hockey.
Wednesday night, that script flipped. Stoneham struck for four goals in the opening period, taking control from the opening faceoff. Lexington was playing the Stoneham game without one of its captains and key contributors, Dylan Lane, who was sidelined with illness. Much like the Minutemen’s early-season struggles when Caleb Fehm missed the first five games, Lane’s absence was certainly felt. Like Fehm, Lane provides a veteran, stabilizing presence in all three zones and was coming off his best offensive output of the season with 2 goals and an assist. While no single player determines the outcome of a game, losing Lane certainly didn’t help.
There’s no need to break down every goal or mistake from the Stoneham game. The focus now has to be on getting back to winning hockey. At its best, this can be a very good team—we’ve seen it for full games and in extended stretches. But when the Minutemen don’t bring their “A” game, the results are also just as clear.
We know what winning hockey looks like: a full 45-minute effort, limiting mistakes, applying relentless pressure with a strong forecheck, and protecting the net front in the defensive zone. And we also know what losing hockey looks like—poor defensive-zone positioning, careless puck management, lackluster effort, and too many penalties.
Teams that win consistently are the teams that don’t beat themselves. They play winning hockey and make opponents pay for their mistakes. Unfortunately, self-inflicted errors have also shown up in games that were both winnable and critical to the playoff push—Concord-Carlisle (1 goal loss), Medford (1 goal loss), Cambridge (weak opponent), Wilmington (one goal loss), and Brookline (2 goal loss, one was an empty netter). Those were games Lexington needed, knowing wins would be harder to come by against the top teams on the schedule.
With exactly seven regular-season games remaining, beginning Saturday night against Wakefield at 8:00 PM at Stoneham Arena, let's hope the boys play some winning hockey!.
Some additional notes:
Brady Kingsbury remains hot with the lone goal against Stoneham ... his team leading 10th of the season.
Since Caleb Fehm's return, the team's goal against (per game) has fallen to 2.12 goals per game from 4.80 goals per game against while he was out.
3 of the next 7 games are home at Hayden - Opponents - Medford, Cambridge R&L, and Auburn.
The combined record on LHS's next 7 opponents is 38 wins / 45 losses / 3 ties
