BEVERLY — Maybe it was turning to a 15-year-old freshman with braces to make his first varsity start in net. Perhaps it was a raucous pregame speech by the team’s leaders that could’ve had the cinder shaking inside the locker room. Or it could’ve been the photo of Jesus holding a hockey stick, taped over the doorway leading to the rink, that every player tapped for good luck on his way to the ice.
Or it’s possible that this was a squad of 22 young men and four coaches who were simply fed up with losing.
Whatever it was, after six games and 282 minutes of hockey, Danvers High has its first win of the 2024-25 season.
“I feel so much relief, like a monkey’s been taken off of our backs,” said senior defenseman and captain Josh Henry, whose game-winning goal at 1:42 of overtime gave the Falcons that much-needed first triumph,3-2, over Beverly Monday at Bourque Arena.
With two state championships in its trophy case and some of the best players in North Shore hockey history having worn the Blue-and-White, Danvers is a proud and fierce program. Winning is as much a part of their DNA as rink pizza is hot and gooey.
Which made the start of the 2024-25 campaign such an anomaly.
Through five games, the Falcons stood at 0-4-1. The had played three overtime games and come away with two losses and a tie. They had played three one-goal games and lost them all.
It’s not as if Danvers was playing poorly, either. It led Gloucester 4-1 in its season opener before dropping a heartbreaking OT decision. That was followed by a neck-and-neck road battle at Amesbury that resulted in a one-goal loss. Next time out, the Falcons rallied from a two-goal deficit against the defending Division 3 state champions from Marblehead and took them to OT suffering another L, 3-2.
“Honestly, even when we were 0-4 I feel like everyone was still super positive. We never really got down on ourselves because we knew we were playing good hockey,” senior center Seamus Cary, an alternate captain, stated. “It was just a few mistakes that led to those losses, and those could be fixed.”
Talk is one thing; results are quite another. Danvers needed a win in the worst way to get out of its early-season malaise, and Monday’s decision over their Northeastern Conference rivals came at the perfect time.
“There’s a word on the back of our jerseys that says ‘Family’,” first-year head coach Bill Sheehan, an assistant coach for the prior three seasons, stated. “We’ve been saying for the last week that families go through rough times, and this is a rough time. But families also stick together, which is exactly what these kids have done.”
Truth be told, Beverly (now 2-3) had the better chances to emerge victorious. Seeking their first three-game winning streak in three seasons, the Panthers — who owned a 27-22 shot advantage — forechecked like they were receiving midterm grades on doing so, moved the puck into the offensive zone smartly, and rallied from a 2-0 deficit with two tallies before the second period ended and had a number of chances to go ahead in the third period, but were unable to cash in.
Henry did for the Falcons … but let’s back up a bit.
Cognizant that five games do not constitute an entire season, Sheehan remarked how he and his assistants have referenced conference rival Marblehead several times in the last few weeks. The Headers, of course, lost their first six times out in 2023-24 before going on to shock the Massachusetts hockey world and capture the Division 3 state title.
Looking for a spark, Foster Bittner got the call in net for Danvers. The ninth grader played in relief the day after Christmas in a 6-4 loss to Chelmsford, but this was his first time getting the starting nod. He was being tasked with helping to put a ‘W’ on the board for his squad.
Steady and without a lot of wasted movement between the pipes, Bittner came up with a number of clutch stops. His best came early in the third period when the Panthers’ Coby Malionek snuck between two defenders to get a clear chance out front, but the freshman stood his ground and turned aside the bid … much to Malionek’s consternation.
“Staying positive is huge,” said Bitter. “A negative attitude isn’t going to help me picture what I want to do out there. And I got a real pick-me-up from my teammates.”
Asking for pre-game help from higher powers for a few years now, Danvers took it up a notch by bringing in a photo of the Son of God for this clash.
“We do the hockey god’s prayers so we get some puck luck, but the photo today was to break the curse of these 1-goal losses and get some mojo going for the boys,” said Henry — the grandson of legendary DHS football coach and athletic director Ernie Smith.
A breakdown on a defensive zone by faceoff by Beverly allowed the Falcons to draw a 1-0 lead early in the second period when Cary won the draw cleanly over to Cooper Dunham, and he ripped a one-timer home for the lead. Just 43 seconds later Gaven Cooper finished off a 2-on-1 with a Dunham by sliding his slot along the ice and in.
But Beverly, which held a 10-4 shot advantage in the frame, would not relent. The team’s Yellow (i.e., third) Line of center Drew Murphy and wings Xander Alexeyev and Henry Mills, held off the scoresheet for their first four games, connected on back-to-back shifts. Murphy stuffed a shot home at the left post to cut the Panthers’ deficit in half, and Alexeyev’s first career marker, a clapper from the far circle that went top shelf, tied it up with 30 seconds left before the second intermission.
“We came into the locker room and worked on staying positive and focused on what we did well, what allowed us to have success in the first place,” said Cary. “That, and really emphasizing the forecheck in the third period.”
A scoreless final 15 minutes sent the contest into a 5-minute, 4-on-4 overtime session. Third line center Evan Petroccione (“he’s been terrific for us and so versatile,” said Sheehan) nearly won it early on before a neutral zone turnover allowed the Falcons to break into the Beverly zone 2-on-1.
“The puck came off my foot and I went backhand side, and (Beverly captain and goalie) P.J. Redman made a really nice glove save,” said the 18-year-old Henry. “But the rebound came out to the corner, and Swanny (sophomore Owen Swanton) got it along the wall and found me out front. I just positioned myself, tipped it high to the top corner, and that was that.”
Beverly feels it should have won, and was bitterly frustrated that it didn’t. For a unit chasing its first playoff berth in three years (and third in the last 11), the bitter taste of disappointment is one Scott hopes fuel them the rest of the way.
“The thing that’s super frustrating,” he noted, “is you have to be your best, and your best players have to be your best, in those big moments, and we’re still looking for that. Hopefully we can find that soon.”
In the joyous Danvers room in the adjacent hallway, Bittner celebrated with his teammates after being awarded assistant coach Matt Churchill’s 1994 state championship jacket, a resplendent royal blue quarter-zip that doesn’t look the 30 years old that it is.
“These experiences that we’ve had already this season, the OT losses and one-goal setbacks,” said Sheehan, “I really feel they’ll make us stronger in the long run.”
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