HAVERHILL — Stop if you’ve heard this one before: In a battle of bitter hockey rivals at Veterans Memorial Rink, Haverhil took down Pentucket in front of a raucous crowd, 4-2.
True on Saturday, and — unfortunately for the Panthers — true Tuesday night.
Over a span of four days, Haverhill skated to victory twice over its rivals by the same exact score. After a frantic opening 60 seconds that saw each team score on their first shot, the Hillies got a pair of goals from Jack Baker within seconds late in the middle period that propelled them to victory in their own holiday tournament.
“We wanted to come out fast and we did,” said Pentucket coach Dan Bly, a 2009 graduate of Haverhill who played in the heated rivalry.
“We scored right away, might be the first time we’ve scored the opening goal in a game in a long time. It felt nice, but unfortunately we gave one up shortly after. But everybody kind of settled in, we were scoreless for a while, and then we just let the emotions get the best of us. One little thing happened, emotions go high, and the next thing you know there’s a puck in the back of our net. That was the game right there.”
Truly though, if you were late arriving Tuesday night, you missed a lot.
Right off the opening faceoff, Aaron Wirwicz wasted no time giving Pentucket (0-3-0) a quick lead. The junior forward raced into the offensive zone pretty much untouched, and flipped in an unassisted tally top-shelf to make it 1-0 in a blink. But it was a lead that vanished quicker than it appeared on the board, as Haverhill won the ensuing draw, and it was Nick Terilli zooming in and roofing one from the left faceoff circle to tie things up.
And after a start like that, both team’s just needed to breathe.
Which they eventually did, especially Pentucket goalie Josh Yoon. The sophomore netminder has taken on the tough task of replacing a four-year stalwart and Daily News All-Star in Ben Guertin, but so far through three games, he’s done a fantastic job. Yoon stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced Tuesday night (the final goal was an empty-netter), and got some nice help in front of him with defensemen Cam Dewar, Mac Cole, Charlie Quinlin and Evan Gawrys all playing strong.
“He’s a big surprise this year, a pleasant surprise,” said Bly of Yoon. “He’s come such a long way from last season, and I think if he keeps giving us some good performances like that, we should be able to win a few hockey games.”
After the opening 60-second flurry, the game was scoreless for the next 25 minutes.
But Baker would give the Hillies the lead for good with a few minutes left in the second period. The speedy forward got himself to the front of the net and scored on a nifty left-to-right move, then after the Hillies left his line on the ice, he did the same exact thing and found the back of the net again in a matter of seconds.
And now at 3-1, Pentucket was chasing the entire third.
With Nick Kutcher, Noah Meyer, Will Sorenson, Sam Escobar, Chase Pelletier and Mike Doucette leading the charge, the Panthers created a handful of great chances around the net. But Haverhill goalie Max Boyer (25 saves) played a solid game, and the Panthers sent a few golden opportunities just wide of his net. Quinlin tipped home a power play goal with 2:45 left to make it 3-2, but the Panthers took an interferance penalty shortly after.
Yoon skated to the bench with 90 seconds left to make it 5-on-5, but Jake Costa stole the puck in the neutral zone and buried the empty-netter to essentially end the game.
“It’s our offensive zone pressure,” said Bly. “We don’t get a lot of pressure, we never really have. If we could find a way to settle it down, find better ways to attack the net and get more shots on goal. We had a few rebounds right there that we couldn’t bury tonight, and that’s just been the story of it.”
Haverhill 4, Pentucket 2
Pentucket (0-3-0): 1 0 1 — 2
Haverhill: 1 2 1 — 4
Goals: H — Jack Baker 2, Jake Costa, Nick Terilli; P — Aaron Wirwicz, Charles Quinlin
Saves: H — Max Boyer 25; P — Josh Yoon 24