Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Close, Tight Hockey Game Turns Into A Rout in Game 1 of PPSHL Finals

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The Boston Gold Kings faced off against the Hudson Valley Reapers at the John A. Ryan Arena in Watertown on April 4. (Courtesy of the Boston Gold Kings)

When a team wins a championship and the dust settles on the celebration, and then the season begins anew, defending said championship becomes the number one storyline. Trying to defend/repeat can be motivating or it can be a burden, or sometimes a little of both. 

Watertown’s own entry in the Power Play Senior Hockey League, the Boston Gold Kings, have spent the whole season up to this point believing they were better then last year’s championship squad, and that the challenge of repeating was all good. While the Gold Kings play has been up and down, and while penalties and a lack of discipline rendered their regular season inconsistent, the roster is full of good guys and equally good hockey players.  

The Gold Kings finished the season in second place, and they won their best-of-three semifinal matchup with the Salem Sasquatch, two games to one. The elephant in the room though was the newest entry to the league, the Hudson Valley (NY) Reapers. Fast, strong, disciplined, good forecheckers and better passers, the Reapers stormed the league to the tune of 14-2 in the regular season, and a two-game sweep of their semifinal, where they outscored Holyoke 22-5. The Gold Kings played the Reapers as well as any in the regular season, winning one of two at home and playing well at Hudson Valley and in possession of leads in both games before falling to defeat. The Gold Kings have every right to believe they can play with the Reapers, and beat the Reapers, but it wouldn’t be easy. And it would require disciplined play, some puck luck, and a full 60-minute effort each night. 

The league allows the higher seed to determine where Game 1 is played, and Hudson Valley chose to come to Watertown for Game 1, with games 2 and 3 (if necessary) in New York. For one period and all but 29 seconds of the second period, the Gold Kings were right where they wanted to be — defending their title and playing a brand of hockey that had them on the verge of taking Game 1. But something happened on the way to the locker room for the second period intermission, and the carry-over to the third turned an entertaining and suspenseful hockey game into a rout, with Hudson Valley ultimately taking Game 1 with a 7-2 victory. Game 2 is Saturday night April 11 in N.Y. at 7 p.m.

The Reapers are a quick-strike team, taking an innocent possession and turning it into a goal. After two weeks off, the Reapers didn’t look the least-bit rusty, and at 5:11 of the first period they turned good passing into a 1-0 lead. Eleven minutes later, they made it 2-0 as their number one line of Frack, Shepherd and Jackson worked their magic. When the Gold Kings Brandon Garneau was called for tripping 28 seconds later, it was as though a collective “oh oh” was heard from the Gold Kings fans.  

What transpired next though changed the game for the next 19 minutes of play. Shorthanded, Tony DiCostanzo retrieved a puck that cleared the zone and eluded the Reapers pointmen.  DiCostanzo flew towards Reapers goaltender Mike Rockwell, intent on turning the breakaway into a shorty to cut the lead in half. DiCostanzo was held just as he was about to shoot. While at first it seemed as though the referee signaled a penalty, instead he had signaled for a penalty shot. A huge moment in Game 1, indeed, and DiCostanzo was up to the task, deking Rockwell to his glove side and then switching to his backhand and lifting the puck into the net to make it Reapers 2, Gold Kings 1.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Defending-Champ Gold Kings Take Winner-Take-All Game 3 in PPSHL Semifinals

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Repeat after me – “The Boston Gold Kings are Defending Champions … The Boston Gold Kings are Defending Champions.” It’s an exercise I imagine most defending champions undertake. It’s a challenge winning it all, and even more so to repeat. 

The Gold Kings started slow last year, but got themselves together come the playoffs, culminating with a sweep of top-seed Salem in the Finals. This year the Gold Kings believe strongly that they are a better team with a deeper and stronger roster. This regular season ended with the Gold Kings as the 2-seed and Salem as the 3-seed. They were separated by one point, and they split their four regular-season games, each winning once at the other’s rink. In Games 1 and 2 they split — and, you guessed it, they each one at the other’s rink. And so, on Saturday night at the JAR, Game Three of the best of three would not only determine the season series, it would send one team to the Finals. Without further adieu, I introduce you to the Defending Champion Boston Gold Kings, a 6-3 winner and still alive to repeat as champions.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Baseball Opens The ’26 Season With A Solid Non-League Win

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There are many “truths” in baseball, and there are two among many when it comes to early-season Spring baseball games. Truth number one? Quite often the weather will be more suited to Football season. Truth number two? Very rarely will games be “clean.” In other words, there will be errors and base-running gaffes and pitchers who have trouble finding the strike-zone, and on and on. Most high school teams get relatively very little time outside prior to the regular season beginning, and just as little actual game action. All that said, Saturday’s home opener was a pretty darn good baseball game for Game 1 of the season, and despite all the above happening, the Raiders swung the bat, played decent baseball overall and received two quality pitching performances on the way to a 9-7 non-league win versus Fitchburg.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Gold Kings, Sasquatch Split First Two Playoff Games, Deciding Game 3 Will be Played in Watertown

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The Boston Gold Kings will face the Salem Sasquatch in a winner-take-all Game 3 of of the PPSHL semifinal series on March 28. (Courtesy of the Boston Gold Kings)

It’s playoff-time in the Power Play Senior Hockey League (PPSHL), and while the league is still young, it’s never too soon for rivalries to form. Last season the number one seed at regular season’s end was the Salem Sasquatch. And when the semi-final results were in, and Salem and the Boston Gold Kings had earned a trip to the Finals, Salem was the favorite. But the Gold Kings won Game 1 on the road and blitzed the Sasquatch in Game 2 on home ice to win the title. 

This year a new kid in town, the Hudson Valley Reapers, has steam-rolled the league with a 14-2 regular season record and they just swept the fourth-seed Holyoke Papermen to earn a trip to the Finals. In the meantime, the Gold Kings, seeded second, and Salem, seeded third, met this weekend in a best of three to earn the right to face Hudson Valley. The teams split the season series 2-2, with each winning once on the road. And so… We are heading to a Game 3 on Saturday night March 28 at 7:20 at the John A. Ryan Arena after Salem beat the Gold Kings Saturday night at the JAR in an overtime thriller, and the following afternoon the Gold Kings, with their backs against the wall, returned the favor with a 5-3 win at the ICenter in Salem, New Hampshire. GAME 1

Saturday night both goaltenders stood tall, Gold Kings goalie Mike Cowell and Salem goalie Keegan McLaughlin, and in the case of McLaughlin, he stood on his head as well, robbing the Gold Kings over and over and keeping the Sasquatch in the game. The Sasquatch scored first 5:08 into the game, off a Gold Kings turnover in their defensive zone. The Gold Kings are a good hockey team, probably better and deeper than last season, but the two biggest issues for them this season from the games I’ve seen have been own-zone play and taking too many penalties.  Both came into play on this night. 

That said, what turned out to be a back-and-forth affair with skating and forechecking and hitting and an intensity that you’d expect from a Game 1 in a best-of-three, the Gold Kins tied the game at 16:02 as defensive stud Ernie Isamatov, who was seemingly on the ice the entire game, sniped a wrister from the point that McGlaughlin might have been screened on. Two minutes, 38 seconds later first-line forward Cam Cordio, who assisted on the Isamatov’s goal, scored a pretty goal to give the Gold Knights the lead after one. Defenseman Shawn Savela sent a great pass from his own zone, off the boards, that Christian Baldino handled with flair. He attacked the zone, drew the defender, and fed Cordio who potted the go-ahead goal with a top-shelf wrister.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Boston Gold Kings Finish in Second Place, Hosting Playoff Game on March 21

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The Boston Gold Kings(BGK) entered their final game of the season feeling pretty good about themselves, entering the contest with second place locked up and having beaten first-place Hudson 6-3 just days earlier. 

While Saturday night’s game versus Salem wouldn’t change the Gold Kings fate come the post-season, it was important to Salem. A win, and a loss by Holyoke versus Norfolk would assure Salem of third place and a match-up with the Gold Kings for a chance to make the Finals. A loss, and Salem would be relegated to the play-in game versus last-place Norfolk and a potential date with Hudson, who finished the season 14-2. Following along? Well, this tale has two parts — part one is a flat game by the Gold Kings that resulted in a 3-2 Salem win.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Boston Gold Kings Keep a Grip on Second Place as Season Winds Down

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The Boston Gold Kings (BGK), coming off a tough road loss back on Feb. 7th, put together a strong and disciplined effort on Valentine’s Day night in front of their home crowd, running away with a 9-4 win. Nine different Gold Kings littered the scoresheet and Goalie Mike Cowell, while maybe not as a sharp as some previous games, was still there when needed to post the win. The Gold Kings move to 7-5-0-2 on the season and with two games remaining in the regular season hold a 4-point lead over third place Holyoke. The Gold Kings got off to a great start when Nick McNally, flying down the right side and going upstairs with a wrister, made it 1-0 1:38 into the first period. But last-place Norfolk, with only two wins on the season, found their skating game and put two past Cowell 10 minutes apart to take the lead 2-1 for the one and only time on the night. The Gold Kings righted the ship with a huge goal with a minute forty one left in the period off the stick of fourth-line Center Mike Delisio to tie it two. Delisio and McNally both had excellent nights and were named two of the three stars post-game. One of the bugaboos for the defending champion Gold Kings this season has been a lack of disciplined hockey at times. Whether taking silly penalties or failing to clear the zone or missed assignments, their game has not always been as clean as they would like it to be. On this night, though, the Gold Kings looked much sharper and in control. Second period goals by M. Baldino, Drizen and Cebula paved the way for a third period explosion, as the Gold Kings simply wore down the Mallards. Despite being a last-place team, Norfolk could skate, but they were vulnerable with ever other aspect of their game, and the Gold Kings took advantage. Goal-scorers Forte, Carta, DiCostanzo and Smith made sure of it after a pretty quiet start to the third period.  But once the clock hit 8:54, it was all Gold Kings till the final whistle. Final score, Gold Kings 9 Mallards 4.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Hockey Plays D2 Squad Dover-Sherborn/Weston Tough in Regular Season Finale

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Watertown/Wayland’s 2026 regular season came to a close Wednesday with a non-league contest versus Dover-Sherborn/Weston(DSW). The game also served as Senior Night as six young men were recognized before the game for their contribution to the program. Once the game began, one and all were treated to an entertaining affair that saw the Raiders (DSW are the Raiders as well, but for this article, only Watertown is the Raiders) take the early lead and once again play a bigger, stronger, faster team (and D2 as well) pretty evenly. It was a 2-1 game DSW late into the second period, but a DSW goal with 30 seconds remaining made it 3-1 after two. That score swelled to 6-2 DSW by game’s-end, but the Raiders kept competing right up to the final whistle. 

Seniors Ryder Barenholtz, Odarjyo Cook, Matthew Wheeler, Griffin Wood, Liam McIsaac and Kingston Omolade were introduced as the starting lineup on this night, a nice touch by Head Coach John Vlachos. For goalie Liam McIsaac, it was a chance to see some action as junior Finnley MacDonald has seen most of the time in net this season. McIsaac did himself proud, making a number of Grade A saves and only surrendering one goal before being relieved by MacDonald half way through the first period. Wayland Senior Griffin Wood, a first-line winger all season long, got the scoring going for a team short on goal-scoring all season. He rambled down the right wing and put a shot on DSW goalie William Goldstein, a shot that wasn’t blistering but nonetheless on net and hard for him to handle: 2:29 in on Senior Night Watertown/Wayland had the lead. DSW tied it four and a half minutes late, but the Raiders, despite being outshot and defending their zone more then they would have liked, were right there with DSW after one period.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Boys Hockey Storms to First League Win in Impressive Fashion

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Watertown/Wayland Hockey deserves so much credit, in my opinion. From the coaching staff on down to the last player on the roster, there has been little to no quit despite winning very infrequently. They play in a very competitive and physical league with a young and undersized roster, yet they always hang tough, even when the score might indicate otherwise. With the regular season winding down and still no league wins next to their name, Watertown/Wayland found the secret sauce against a Wakefield squad, who in addition to clearly getting out-played, left their A-game, let alone their C-game back in Wakefield. Final score, which is music to the ears of EVERYONE associated with Watertown/Wayland, Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 2. It started very rocky for the Raiders. SIX seconds in captain Luke Egan was sent to the penalty box for hooking. But the Raiders executed a good kill, and junior Goalie Finnley MacDonald, called upon all season long to make quality and quantity saves, faced two good scoring chances and steered them aside. But a funny thing happened on the way to getting back to full strength —the Raiders failed to execute the transition from Egan leaving the box to a line shift, and were immediately back on the penalty kill, guilty of a bench minor for too many men on the ice. 

Now, if you believe in fate, I’d recommend the story of the rest of the period as proof that it exists. The Raiders not only killed the second penalty, but settled down, played solid hockey, and at 11:14 went on the power play thanks to — yup, a Wakefield penalty for too many men on the ice. And 28 seconds later they were whistled for a tripping, giving Watertown/Wayland a two-man advantage. And what did the Raiders do better than Wakefield with their power play opportunities? That’s right hockey fans, they scored, first a 5-on-3 power play goal courtesy of a Griffin Wood wrister, and then they pulled off the daily double as Michael Philbin scored a 5-on-4 power play goal to make it 2-0. Now, to be clear, I’m neither making light or making fun of what I’m about to say, but there have been very few opportunities to say “Raiders are up 2-0 with two minutes left in the period.” It sounds good, right?