North Andover, MA The Islanders Hockey Club (IHC) notched a shootout victory over the South Shore Kings in the inaugural game on the campus of Merrimack College. It was a great christening to our new building, stated GM/Head Coach Sean Tremblay. We received solid goaltending from Alex Morin and Casey Shea was the hero being the only one of ten shooters to score in the shootout.

South Shore would score the first goal of the game when Zachary Phelps let go a hard snap shot racing down the right side for a 1-0 lead. It would hold for about 5-minutes until Mark Dufour would score on a rebound in front of the net. Eddie Ellis and Ted McCarran would garner assists on the goal. McCarran would strike 20-seconds later when he picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and took it down the left side and unleashed a missile over the blocker of Connor Maher for a 2-1 home lead.

The Islanders almost made it 3-1 with 1-second to go as Mark Dufour came out of the penalty box and was found behind the Kings defensemen, but Maher would make a blocker save to keep it a one-goal game. However, Dufour would get even early in the second when he slid a backhander along the ice that beat Maher, forcing Coach Scott Harlow to call a time-out and relieve Maher in favor of Peter Cronin. The move would pay off as the Kings calmed down and Cronin was unbeatable the rest of regulation play. Tim Boyle would score in the second and only 1:27 into the third period Joe Lappin would tie things at 3-3 with an assist going to Connor Brassard

Both teams would exchange scoring chances in OT, but Cronin and Morin were up to the task, forcing a 3-man shootout as called for in USPHL play. They would once again be up to the task forcing a sudden-death shootout and not until Morin would stop his 5^th straight shot would Cronin show a minor kink in his armor. The 10^th shooter, Casey Shea, would come down the middle, sell a quick deke forcing Cronin to go down while Shea wristed one by him for the victory.

The Islanders now travel to face the Bay State Breakers Saturday at 6:50pm only to return home on Sunday and square off against the undefeated Portland Pirates at 12:30pm.