Sports 12-15-2016

CHS Roundup

CHS boys basketball wins season-opener

The Chelsea High boys basketball team gave their new head coach, Judah Jackson, an early Christmas present, gift-wrapping a 55-41 victory at Minuteman Regional  Tuesday evening in their season-opener.

After trailing 20-18 at the intermission, the Red Devils came out on fire to start the second half. Chelsea increased its defensive intensity, which in turn produced opportunities at the offensive end, resulting in a dominating 35-21 point differential over the final two periods.

“It was not our best performance, but we did what we had to do in order to come away with a win,” said Jackson, the former Everett High and Bridgewater State standout who was the CHS assistant and JV coach last season.

Junior Franklin Cruz-Carcamo finished with a game-high 26 points, 22 of which Franklin drained in the second half from his small forward spot. Sophomore shooting guard Werner Mazariegos also reached double-figures for Chelsea with 11 points.

Belmiro DeVeiga and Raphael Otero hit for five points each, followed by Waldane Watkins and Armani Cheek with three points apiece and Luciano Rodriguez with two points to round out the CHS scoring chart.

Jackson and his crew host Mystic Valley tomorrow (Friday) evening with a 5:30 tip-off and trek to Whittier Tuesday.

Bruins Beat

by Bob Morello

Bruins goal scoring?

Monday night’s celebration of Boston’s impressive 2-1 overtime win versus the Montreal Canadiens subsided quickly, as the Bruins hit the road and headed to Pittburgh, prepared to take on the streaking Penguins last night (Wednesday) as the Record went to press. The Penguins’ six-game win streak has put them a single point behind Montreal in the Eastern Conference standings, as they move forward like a well-oiled machine. The Bruins on the other hand, continue to struggle in their attempts to put the puck in the net. Bs coach Claude Julien juggled the lines in a move to produce a bit more balanced scoring, but despite the fact that the new alignment provided a much-needed win, the offense still struggles. The Eastern Conference standings tell much of the story as the edge in competition is magnified with the goals for/goals against numbers.

In the case of the Bruins, they are currently dead even, with 71 goals for, and 71 goals against – for a zero difference, while last night’s (Wednesday) opponent, Pittsburgh had a +20 differential, while Montreal had a solid +28. Julien’s search for goal scoring continues, with one of the glaring problems being the lack of goals being scored by veteran players. While the core of veterans have been unable to get on track, perhaps Julien’s decision to cause some movement with his lines may prove to be the answer.

The numbers don’t add up when you look at last season’s stats: Bergeron led the team in points with 32-36-68 points (80 games) – this season 4-4-8 points (27 games); Brad Marchand was the 2015-16 top Bs goal scorer with 37 goals (77 games) – this season 8 goals (30 games); David Krejci managed close to one-point-per game last season 17-46-63 points (72 games) – thus far this season 4-13-17 points (30 games); definite signs that the goal/points production has just not happened thus far this season. The single most positive sign has been the development of David Pastrnak who continues to find the back of the net, already surpassing last season’s 15-goal total (51 games) with 18 this season in just 25 games. Adding to the frustration are the lengthy injuries that have plagued Boston, especially those to Matt Beleskey (placed on injured reserve), Noel Acciari, and rookie Frank Vatrano who contributed eight goals in his brief 39-game stint. Jimmy Hayes’ one goal/one point production in 26 games to date is just mind-boggling, the regular lack of input from the fourth line of Ryan Spooner, Austin Czarnik and Riley Nash, hurts, with the positive being that both Czarnik and Spooner did manage to put the puck behind Carey Price in Boston’s recent 2-1 victory over Montreal.

Lack of consistency is obvious when you see many shots missing the net, loose pucks and rebounds coming out front of the net, and not being pounced on by the Bruins. Tonight (Thursday) the Bruins will either be riding a two-game win streak (if they beat Pittsburgh Wednesday), or hoping to start a new one when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Garden ice (7:00pm). Anaheim begins a brief three-game homestand for the Bs, with the Los Angeles Kings providing the opposition for Sunday’s 1:00pm matinee, and the New York Islanders closing out the homestand with a 7:00pm start Tuesday (12/20).

 

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