NEWBURYPORT — Immediately following the final horn, Amesbury hockey coach Steve Costa went through the normal postgame routine.
He went down the handshake line and made sure to acknowledge every Pentucket player, after his Redhawks had just skated to a hard-fought, 5-3 victory over the Panthers in the 28th annual Bank Classic tournament final. He then took some photos with the team on the ice as they celebrated their Fournier Division championship, and spoke with a couple of parents before being flagged down by “The Daily News” for an interview.
Which ended with the coach delivering a message that should scare whoever the Redhawks draw in the opening round of the upcoming Division 2 state tournament.
“We’ve got some talent, and I don’t think we’ve played our very best hockey yet,” said Costa.
Yeah, that’s scary.
Because for over the past month, Amesbury (12-6-0) has arguably been the hottest team in the entire CAL — right up there with Newburyport. After Wednesday’s win in the Bank Classic finals, the Redhawks will now enter the Division 2 tournament having won 10 of their last 11 games — with their lone setback coming to a 2-loss Methuen team. They’ve averaged an even 5.0 goals per game during that stretch, and have seen a young third line emerge, as well as freshman goalie Collin Dyer blossom into a young star at the position.
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Amesbury’s first line of Bodie Marcotte, Matt Venturi and Joey Duggan are the top-3 scorers in the Daily News area, and have been absolutely dominant all season. Marcotte — a junior and two-time Daily News All-Star — had an area-high 23 goals with 17 assists heading into Wednesday’s game, while Venturi and Duggan both led the area with 23 assists to go along with 16 and 9 goals, respectively.
“We’re playing some pretty good hockey right now,” said Costa. “We’re clicking. Defensively, offensively, everywhere on the ice, so it’s an exciting time.”
And Wednesday night, Amesbury took down a truly desperate team.
With its back against the wall, Pentucket (5-14-1) went down with its best punch. The Panthers entered the game right on “the bubble” in Division 4 at No. 34, and even though the math still exists that they could sneak in, a win would of certainly given them a better chance.
It was basically a “win-and-in” scenario.
“We played with a lot of energy tonight,” said Pentucket coach Dan Bly. “It was do-or-die pretty much, and the boys weren’t ready to go home. Credit to Amesbury, they’re playing really well. But we lost a guy to injury in the second period who didn’t come back, and we’re already short on the bench as it is. So that hurt us a bit at the end of the game when legs started to get tired. But I’m proud of the kids, they really battled today.”
Amesbury did set the tone early.
Not even four minutes in, it was Venturi getting to the front of the net during a scrum, and the senior captain was able to find the puck and poke home the game-opening goal. Then later in the first period, the puck again found Venturi’s stick gliding into the offensive zone down the left side, and he fired a wrister that went over goalie Josh Yoon’s right shoulder to make it 2-0 heading to intermission.
Massive credit, though, has to go to Yoon.
The sophomore netminder has improved dramatically as a first-year starter this winter, and made a handful of excellent saves during the opening period that kept the game from getting out of hand early. Which proved critical in the second, as senior captain Cam Dewar blasted a rocket top shelf to cut the defecit in half, then Chase Pelletier tied it at 2-2 with a minute left in the period.
The Panthers just weren’t going to lay down, man.
Basically only rolling two lines all night and for the majority of the season, there are some warriors on this roster. Seniors like Nick Kutcher, Mikey Doucette, Dewar and Jacob Yoon will be missed by the program if Wednesday was in fact their last game, but certainly set the example for the young guys with their toughness and fight. One of those young guys, Aaron Wirwicz, was named to the All-Tournament team after the game.
“They’re all just such great kids,” said Bly on his seniors. “This is my third year here, so they were sophomores when I started. So I’ve seen them grow up a bit, and they’re all great kids and I love them to death.”
But Amesbury wasted no time taking the lead back.
With 30 seconds left in the middle frame — just 30 seconds after Pelletier’s tying goal — Nathan Brown fired an odd-angle shot on net that somehow deflected in. The Redhawks then took back firm control early in the third, with Duggan scoring twice in a row during a five-minute span to bump the lead back up to 5-2. Dewar sent home his second of the game with 80 seconds left, but the Panthers ran out of time.
Marcotte finished with four assists, and after the game Duggan was named the Fournier Division tournament MVP.
Amesbury was ranked at No. 24 in the latest Division 2 rankings, and will now wait to see what team its draws when the bracket gets released this weekend.
“This is a big time win for us,” said Costa. “We’re going to draw a high placement in the tournament, but I think we’re going to do okay. We’re up a couple of divisions from last year, but we’re hoping to repeat what we were able to do (go to the D4 Quarterfinals), and maybe even go further. So we’ll see who we draw and go from there.”
Amesbury 5, Pentucket 3
Pentucket (5-14-1): 0 2 1 — 3
Amesbury (12-6-0): 2 1 2 — 5
Goals: A — Matt Venturi 2, Joey Duggan 2, Nathan Brown; P — Cam Dewar 2, Chase Pelletier
Assists: A — Bodie Marcotte 4, Duggan 2, Maddox Leblanc, Wes Ackerman, Brown, Cam Abromovitch; P — Aaron Wirwicz 2, Nick Kutcher 2, Mac Cole, Dewar
Saves: A — Collin Dyer; P — Josh Yoon