CANTON — The occasion itself would possibly nonetheless be in its infancy, however the Ed Burns Coffee Pot Classic has rapidly morphed into among the finest highschool hockey tournaments in Massachusetts as a result of participation of some blue-chip applications.
On Sunday within the second annual working of the showcase, Jeremy Insogna entered the illustrious Canton Ice House hoping to go away an enduring mark. The junior succeeded, registering a hat trick to propel Tewksbury to the Walter Brinn title recreation with an epic 6-3 victory over Weymouth.
“Recently, it’s been a struggle for us to score,” Insogna stated. “We’re getting the shots, we’re getting the chances, just couldn’t finish. Today, we really opened the floodgates early, and kept that going throughout the game.”
The two faculties engaged in a chess match to start out, buying and selling punches all through the opening interval. Insogna tallied a pair of objectives within the stanza to assist Tewksbury enter the second in a 2-2 impasse.
Then, the sport turned on its head in a rush, thanks largely to a surprising fluke play. Following a face-off to start the second interval, Tyler Barnes corralled the puck, then merely dumped it into the Weymouth finish. It ricocheted excessive off the boards behind the Wildcats’ web, then skipped off the goaltender’s pads and into the twine as Tewksbury took a 3-2 lead.
“On the play there, I crossed the red line,” Barnes recounted. “I was just going to go dump and chase. It just went off the boards and went right in. That was probably one of the most shocking moments of my hockey career right there. I’ve never seen that happen before, ever.”
Barnes proceeded to tack on one other aim 20 seconds later, and his group by no means appeared again from there.
Insogna put the ending touches on the victory, as he, Barnes and Matthew Cooke skated in transition late in regulation. The junior collected a go, then stuffed the puck dwelling for his third and closing aim with 43.4 seconds remaining, sealing the deal.
Tewksbury additionally acquired a aim from Cooke, to his credit score. Insogna completed with six complete factors (three objectives, three assists).
Weymouth was led by Anthony Choukas, Ryan Kane and Ryan Ferguson, every tallying a aim.
Tewksbury will now face Winchester within the Walter Brinn Division finals. Senior ahead Kevin Bertocci buried a pair of objectives, because the Red and Black opened the day’s occasions with a 3-0 blanking of Natick within the semifinals.
“Usually we get going when we get the first one right away,” Bertocci stated. “We got a quick one, the boys got a lot of energy, we got a lot of confidence. It’s a grind… in the finals, it’s going to be a dogfight.”
After gaining management of a go, Bertocci noticed Luke Sardone camped by the Natick cage, and tried to feed the puck to his teammate. In a stroke of luck, it really didn’t attain its supposed goal. Rather, the puck bounced off the stick of a defenseman, then rolled harmlessly into the netting as Winchester seized a 1-0 lead with 1:40 left within the first interval.
The rating would maintain till the waning moments of regulation, when the Red Hawks pulled goaltender Jason Danahy in favor of an additional skater. Following a turnover, Bertocci took off on a breakaway, then clinched the sport with an open-net tally with 51 seconds left. Sophomore Chris McCarthy would tack on a aim with 18.1 seconds remaining for the Red and Black.
While Winchester coach Gino Khachadourian was thrilled to see his group advance to the championship recreation, he was additionally hesitant to look too far forward to subsequent weekend. This was primarily resulting from the truth that the Red and Black have reached the gauntlet portion of their common season schedule.
“We’ve got a tough week ahead of us,” chuckled Khachadourian. “We still have Belmont on Wednesday, and then Arlington on Friday. So it doesn’t get easy, the road gets harder. But they’re ready, they’re prepared, and like I said, they’re getting better every day.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com