Stunning loss for Tewksbury

TEWKSBURY >> On Thursday night, the Tewksbury Redmen ran into a hot goalie when they faced Lowell Catholic, but luckily with 37 seconds left in a tied game, a tipped shot gave the No. 1 seed a first-round victory in the Division 2 state tournament.

On Sunday night, the Redmen again ran into a hot goalie, but this time the defending state champions were not so lucky.

Minus the first five minutes when Norwood scored two goals, the Redmen outplayed the Mustangs throughout the majority of the game, and outshot them 52-17, but they couldn’t put one past netminder Anthony Amato until the final 79 seconds when the game was already determined.

The hot play of Amato left the Redmen players skating off the ice stunned and very emotional in the 5-2 defeat.

“These four months have been fantastic, but it’s not just this year, it’s been the last two years. It’s just something special. Getting to go to Fenway (Park) with them, to the (TD) Garden with them and I actually thought we had a chance to do it again this year,” said Tewksbury head coach Derek Doherty. “I thought we were the better team tonight and we outshot them 52-17. We couldn’t put the puck by the kid.”

Just 1:11 into the game, the No. 17 seed Mustangs (14-6-2) got on the board when Andrew Gillis gathered the puck in the neutral zone and came into the Redmen (19-2-1) zone with a full steam before ripping a shot to the top far corner for the quick 1-0 lead.

Then 34 seconds later, Rich Carroll scored off a rebound and the Mustangs silenced the home crowd with the 2-0 lead.

“In the first five minutes, the turnovers hurt us. They played off transition quick and they jumped on us. I don’t think it was so much that we didn’t come out to play, it was more about turning the puck over, and Norwood going on transition,” said Doherty. “We settled down and it was like, ‘OK, we’re going to score five or six goals.’ Even when it was 2-0, I still thought that we have a lot of firepower and I thought we would be able to blow the puck by him. I pulled our goalie when it was 3-0 and I had no choice (at that moment).”

Tewksbury went on the power play late in the first period and managed just two shots on net. In the second, the Redmen went on two more power plays, and still couldn’t drive one home. Again to the start the third, the Redmen failed to take advantage of the man advantage.

Late in the third, Norwood’s TJ Martin scored on a power play to make it 3-0. About 80 seconds later, the Redmen pulled goalie Ben O’keefe for the extra skater and Norwood scored an empty-netter. In the final 1:19, the Redmen scored two short-handed goals by Jeremy Insogna and Nick Diciccio, before the Mustangs added a second empty-netter with 4.7 seconds left.

“They (Norwood) were the fastest team that we have faced all season. Everything for them was a blocked shot and go off transition or something gets deflected and they are up the ice. Hey, good luck to them, I hope they win it all. I really do. They are a classy group, classy coaching staff and classy kids,” said Doherty.