Tewksbury and Winchester advance to Brinn Division final
The event itself might still be in its infancy, but the Ed Burns Coffee Pot Classic has quickly morphed into one of the best high school hockey tournaments in Massachusetts due to the participation of some blue-chip programs.
On Sunday in the second annual running of the showcase, Jeremy Insogna entered the illustrious Canton Ice House hoping to leave a lasting mark. The junior succeeded, registering a hat trick to propel Tewksbury to the Walter Brinn title game with an epic 6-3 victory over Weymouth.
“Recently, it’s been a struggle for us to score,” Insogna said. “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 schools engaged in a chess match to start, trading punches throughout the opening period. Insogna tallied a pair of goals in the stanza to help Tewksbury enter the second in a 2-2 deadlock.
Then, the game turned on its head in a hurry, thanks in large part to a stunning fluke play. Following a face-off to begin the second period, Tyler Barnes corralled the puck, then simply dumped it into the Weymouth end. It ricocheted high off the boards behind the Wildcats’ net, 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 another goal 20 seconds later, and his team never looked back from there.
Insogna put the finishing touches on the victory, as he, Barnes and Matthew Cooke skated in transition late in regulation. The junior collected a pass, then stuffed the puck home for his third and final goal with 43.4 seconds remaining, sealing the deal.
Tewksbury also received a goal from Cooke, to his credit. Insogna finished with six total points (three goals, three assists).
Weymouth was led by Anthony Choukas, Ryan Kane and Ryan Ferguson, each tallying a goal.
Tewksbury will now face Winchester in the Walter Brinn Division finals. Senior forward Kevin Bertocci buried a pair of goals, as the Red and Black opened the day’s events with a 3-0 blanking of Natick in the semifinals.
“Usually we get going when we get the first one right away,” Bertocci said. “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 control of a pass, Bertocci spotted Luke Sardone camped by the Natick cage, and tried to feed the puck to his teammate. In a stroke of luck, it actually didn’t reach its intended target. 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 in the first period.
The score would hold until the waning moments of regulation, when the Red Hawks pulled goaltender Jason Danahy in favor of an extra skater. Following a turnover, Bertocci took off on a breakaway, then clinched the game with an open-net tally with 51 seconds left. Sophomore Chris McCarthy would tack on a goal 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 game, he was also hesitant to look too far ahead to next weekend. This was primarily due to the fact that the Red and Black have reached the gauntlet portion of their regular 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.”