Colonials center Clark Dumarte got denied by the Spartans defense.
Last night, Shrewsbury scored first and never looked back as the Colonials were able to come away victorious against East Longmeadow by a score of 3-0 at the Olympia Center in West Springfield. Steve Stanislawzyk scored the second goal of the game and assisted on the final goal of the game to lead the Colonials. Goalie Bobby Fitzgerald recorded the shutout, the fourth of the season, by making some difficult saves throughout the contest. Fitzgerald tallied 14 saves, 8 of which occurred in the second period, during the victory. Last night's contest marked the second time this season these squads have faced each other. On December 19th, Shrewsbury and East Longmeadow skated to a 4-4 tie during the consolation game of the Dana Willard Christmas Tournament.

A look at Shrewsbury's bench.
The first period started off slow for both sides. With 13:10 remaining in the first, East Longmeadow had a chance to score as senior captain Kevin Turowsky tried a wrap around goal, but came up just short. Later on, Shrewsbury's Bryan Parsons made a nice defensive dive to get the puck out of the Colonials zone. Throughout the game, Parsons displayed a great defensive awareness. Midway through the period, neither team ha yet to distinguished themselves from the other. Spartans' Jimmy O'Toole made a solid pass to center the puck in front of the Colonials net, but Alex Bazin, Brendon Linnehan, and Max Wosky were unable to catch the puck cleanly and get off a shot on net. With 2:47 remaining, East Longmeadow's Matt Fessenden made a great defensive stop on Shrewsbury's Bobby Costa to prevent a Colonials breakaway.  The first period came to a conclusion with the game scoreless.

Bobby Fitzgerald stopped all 14 shots he saw to give Shrewsbury the shutout.
Shrewsbury's Ryan McWeeney committed a crosschecking penalty with 12:55 in the second period to give East Longmeadow their first power play opportunity of the night. The Colonials were able to kill the penalty, due to Dave Finlay's great clear outs. Shrewsbury's right winger Cam Cottam scored a power play goal off the assist from left winger Andy Lijoi to finally break the scoreless game with 8:06 remaining. East Longmeadow's Jimmy O'Toole committed the crosscheck infraction to give the Colonials the power play opportunity. With 3:30 remaining in the second period, East Longmeadow had a flurry of shots at Shrewsbury' goalie Bobby Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald was able to keep all the shots in front of him and made eight saves in the period.  Shrewsbury added to their one goal lead after Steve Stanislawzyk fired a shot which was partially stopped by East Longmeadow's Chris Footit, but somehow was able to slip into the net for the score. Shrewsbury went into the locker room leading East Longmeadow by a score of 2-0 after two periods.

The final period started off like the first period; slow and poorly executed. East Longmeadow needed someone to provide a spark to get this team back in the contest, but the spark would never come as the Colonials defense caused numerous East Longmeadow turnovers during the period. East Longmeadow went the entire game without a clean breakaway opportunity. Additionally, the Spartans went roughly eight minutes without putting a shot on the Colonials net. Despite Shrewsbury making some poor passes in the final five minutes of play, the Spartans were unable to generate any offense. Spartans' junior forward Kenny Morrisino tried to rally East Longmeadow by using his speed and elusiveness to create some scoring opportunities, but his efforts were not enough to over come the Colonials defense. East Longmeadow's senior defenseman Jake Denver committed an interference penalty with 3:25 remaining in the game to essentially seal the win for Shrewsbury. The Colonials were able to preserve the shutout and win by a final score of 3-0.

With the win, Shrewsbury improved to 11-3-3 overall, while East Longmeadow dropped to 5-10-1. East Longmeadow's next game is against divisional opponent the Ludlow Lions (5-10-1) on Tuesday. Shrewsbury takes on Gardner (5-9-2) tomorrow at the Veterans Skating Arena in Gardner.


Saves:

Shrewsbury's Bobby Fitzgerald: 14 saves
East Longmeadow's Chris Footit: 15 saves
 



Video highlights from the game.
Check out the video link for game highlights.