PLYMOUTH -- The Hanover High boys hockey team improved to 14-0-1 Wednesday night with a 4-0 win over Plymouth South at the Armstrong Rink.
The win officially clinched the Patriot League Fisher Division title for the Indians, who are 10-0 in league play. Second-place Plymouth South drops to 11-3-1 (7-3-1) with its second straight loss. It was the first time the Panthers had been shut out all season.
"We came out flat and we never really got into a good rhythm," Plymouth South coach Mike McCosh said. "We've got to play hard every shift, every game, and we didn't do that tonight."
Both teams already have qualified for the upcoming playoffs and can use the next three weeks to tune things up as they look to make a long tourney run.
"We're healthy and we're rolling pretty good right now," Hanover coach Jonny Abban said. "We're able to run out four lines, three sets of defensemen and rotate a couple of goaltenders each night, so everyone's contributing something in these wins."
Wednesday night was Kevin Chandler's turn between the pipes and Hanover's netminder stopped everything the Panthers threw at him. Zach Taylor broke the 100 career-point barrier last week and he continued to fill the scoresheet with two more goals in the win.
Hanover kept coming in waves into the Panthers' defensive zone early in the game, keeping Plymouth South goaltender Cam McPhee very busy. The Indians hit a couple of posts before Taylor found the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead five minutes into the contest.
Nate DelPrete added a goal in the middle stanza before Drew Cratty and Taylor tacked on goals two minutes apart in the third period.
Plymouth South is off for a week. The Panthers will be back here next Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. to take on North Quincy and they'll then travel to face Pembroke on Saturday, Feb. 10 in a pair of Patriot League battles. South will take part in the Spartan Cup at the Hetland Memorial Arena in New Bedford along with Rockland, Bishop Stang and Dartmouth on Feb. 14-16 before closing out the regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 21 back at home against Dennis-Yarmouth.
Hanover's next four games are all at the Hobomock Arena -- against Pembroke (Feb. 3), Scituate (Feb. 7), North Quincy (Feb. 10) and Norwell (Feb. 17) -- before finishing up on the road against Cohasset on Feb. 21.