It was one of the highly anticipated matchups of the season, and it lived up to its billing.
Especially if you’re a fan of defensive hockey.
In 35 games between them, teams from Lawrence Academy and Dexter School have lost just three games this winter. Neither team took a black mark on Jan. 26, their meeting at LA ending in a 1-1 tie.
Two of New England’s strongest teams are winning games because they’re keeping pucks out of their net. Dexter senior Derek Mullahy, bound for Harvard, is enjoying as good a season as anybody in the region.
“We have the best goalie in New England and I say that without hesitation,” said Dexter coach Dan Donato (Dedham, Mass.). “I think we’re playing better in front of him, but he makes the regular save and the big save, and he makes both look easy.”
Mullahy, a Scituate, Mass., native who started two games for the U.S. in the offseason Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, has been on everyone’s radar for years. Last year, he posted a 1.94 goals-against average and .926 save percentage in backstopping Dexter to the semifinals of the Stuart/Corkery tournament, where its season ended with a 3-1 loss to Salisbury.
Donato said Mullahy’s athleticism reminds him a bit of Jonathan Quick (Hamden, Conn.), the L.A. Kings superstar who was playing at Avon Old Farms when Donato was on the staff at rival Salisbury.
“He’s an incredible athlete,” said Donato. “He squares up to everything. Very rarely do you see a bad goal; you have to beat him to beat him.”
Now, Dexter (12-3-4) is back at it again, despite losing top threat John Farinacci to injury early in the season. The Harvard commit, regarded by some as the most skilled player in prep hockey, just returned to the lineup for the Jan. 18 win over Thayer.
“We’re finally getting healthy, we’re playing pretty good and I feel good about where the ship is heading,” said Donato.
Mullahy might headline the list of the region’s goaltending prospects, but look around New England and most of the teams that are thriving have an asset in net.
“Everyone’s good,” noted Deerfield coach Tim McVaugh. “There’s a lot of 4-3, 3-2, 2-1 games. The teams that play well together (defensively) are usually the ones that end up winning.”
Mullahy checked in at No. 28 on NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings of North American goalie draft prospects. Also making the list were 6-foot-1 Henry Wilder of Hotchkiss, 6-foot-5 Alex Aslanidis of Avon Old Farms and 6-foot-6 Dominic Basse of South Kent.
Meanwhile, the region’s top team, Salisbury (17-2), is lighting the lamp at a frightening level (6.1 goals per game), but Jared Levine has taken the reins in goal and helped stabilize the back end.
Dartmouth-bound senior Thomas Gale has Deerfield in the Stuart/Corkery selection conversation, though a recent three-game winless streak that produced a total of four goals has dropped the team to 10-6-1.
At Avon, Aslanidis has backstopped the Winged Beavers to an 11-6 mark before he heads over to Providence College.
And Lawrence still hasn’t absorbed a loss. The Spartans have won 10 and tied six, emerging as one of the best teams in the Independent School League.
Standout junior forward Sam Colangelo, a Northeastern commit, commanded much of the attention heading into the season, but the back end has been an asset for the Spartans, who are battling St. Sebastian’s (14-4) at the top of the Keller Division standings.
Six-foot-1 junior Brandon Milberg has stepped into the starting role in net and performed well. He kept his team in the game against Dexter, allowing just one goal, but both teams had to make peace with a tie when it was over.
Mullahy and Dexter will open the February portion of their schedule against Phillips Exeter, Phillips Andover and New Hampton, and figure to face — literally — everyone’s best shots.
“We’re a team that people get up for now,” noted Donato. “We get everyone’s best game. It really makes for great development for us.”
