Ryan Sheehan has won a lot of games over his current nine-year coaching tenure with the Triton hockey team.
100, to be exact.
And over that time, accumulating that number of wins, of course some have come easier than others.
For win No. 100, though, his Vikings made it pretty relaxing.
In his first attempt at picking up the milestone victory, Sheehan and Triton handled business to get the job done. Junior defenseman Michael Taylor pumped in four goals, and the Vikings got their head man to triple-digit wins following a blowout of Rockport, 12-2.
Vaughn Gagnon scored early for the Vikings (7-2-0), then a pair of goals from Taylor and tallies from Vinny Magee and Josh Hersey made it 5-0 after the first period. Taylor would add two more goals in the second along with Hersey finding his second of the game, and starting goalie Gavin Marengi gladly gave way to Josh Berger following the middle frame. Hersey completed the hat-trick in the third with Gagnon finding his second, and Luke Sullivan and Jon Doherty would close out the scoring for the Vikings.
Sheehan will now go for win No. 101 when Triton hosts Essex Tech on Saturday with a noon puck drop from the Graf.
Newburyport girls battle through illness
You never want to play your archrival while not at 100 percent.
Unfortunately, the Newburyport girls hockey team was in that situation on Wednesday night when it traveled to take on Masconomet — the program it had once co-opted with. The Clippers had a few starters out sick, and had to shorten the bench to just three defensemen and only two centers for three forward lines.
But they still found a way.
Allie Simons scored twice, and Newburyport was able to earn a big win over its biggest rival, 4-2. Delaney Belanger and Olivia Wilson had the other goals for the Clippers (2-3-1), and Maggie Moriarty, Reese Beauparlant, Lainey Pare and Mackenzie Riley had assists.
“It was a huge win,” said Newburyport coach Josh Freeman. “The girls played so hard.”
MacIsaac’s hat-trick lifts Newburyport over Amesbury
Both of these clubs desperately needed a win.
The Newburyport boys hockey team had dropped three of its last four, while Amesbury came into Wednesday night’s matchup at the Salem IceCenter on a similar four-game skid. You could also throw in that the Redhawks were looking for their first win over the Clippers in over 12 years, with just a 2-2 tie back during the 2021-22 season being the program’s lone non-loss during that stretch.
But to break that streak, it’ll take at least one more year.
Newburyport got three goals from sophomore forward Luke MacIsaac, and was able to hold on late to earn a much-needed win, 5-3.
The Clippers (3-5-0) went up 2-0 after the first period, with Finn McNeil scoring off a faceoff win from Brian Lucy, and MacIsaac netting a power play tally off a feed from Henry Waddell. But Amesbury (3-6-0) would fight back to tie things up, getting a shorthanded goal from Bodie Marcotte early in the second period, followed by a Grady Stickney goal early in the third. MacIsaac netted his second of the game off a pass from Jack Sullivan to retake the lead for the Clippers, but Marcotte would once again find Stickney to tie things back up at 3-3.
But with a minute left, the Clippers found the winner.
Waddell forced a turnover on the Amesbury blue line that created a 2-on-1, and feathered a nice pass over to MacIsaac for the game-winner and the hat-trick. Seconds later, Waddell would ice it with an empty-netter.
Yoon, Pentucket can’t squeak out tie
It would have been a solid result for the Pentucket hockey team.
The Panthers were fresh off a pair of tough setbacks, and on Wednesday night had to travel to a one-loss Essex Tech team. Even a tie would have generated some positive momentum, and the Panthers were in position to earn that with the game locked at 1-1 with just over a minute left. But Essex Tech (8-1-1) would come up clutch, finding the go-ahead goal in the closing seconds before adding an empty-netter in a 3-1 victory.
For Pentucket (3-5-0), Cooper LeCoist found the back of the net, while goalie Josh Yoon ”stood on his head,” according to coach Dan Bly, to keep the game tied for as long as he did.