BEVERLY — “Tonight’s the night it ends,” said Beverly senior defenseman Ryan Everett to a visitor entering the Raymond J. Bourque Arena on this bitterly cold January night.
‘It’ was the Panthers’ 11-game winless streak against their rivals from Danvers High, a team they hadn’t beaten in almost five full years. (For those of you numerologists, it was 1,811 days prior, on February 12, 2021).
Thanks in large part to junior goaltender Ty Chin-Aleong, the Orange-and-Black made good on that promise to themselves, scoring twice late in the second period and two more in the third to hang a 4-0 loss on the Falcons.
Pitching his second consecutive shutout (the first two of his varsity career), Chin-Aleong was sharp throughout in making 23 saves. He has allowed just one goal in his last nine periods of hockey.
“I feel like I’ve been in the zone lately, and it feels awesome,” said Chin-Aleong, who saw his goals-against average drop to 2.49 and his save percentage rise to .904 with the victory. “I just tell myself if the boys are taking care of the offense, I have to stop the puck.
“I had a little bit of a rough start (to the season) and figured I needed to flip the switch and tell myself ‘nothing is getting past me’,” he added. “Tonight, the defense was amazing in front of me, blocking shots and taking away their (shooting) lanes.”
To serve as momentum, Beverly had taped several copies of past Salem News articles in its locker room Wednesday night alluding to previous Danvers victories over them.
“This feels great, just awesome,” senior captain Mikey O’Leary, who scored seven seconds into the third period to give Beverly a commanding 3-0 lead, stated. “We practiced our butts off for this one, and all the hard work paid off.”
Beverly, now 7-4-2 overall and 5-2-1 in NEC play, is now tied with Danvers for second place in the league standings behind Winthrop, which is 6-2 after defeating Peabody/Saugus/Swampscott Wednesday night. Gloucester (5-3) is in fourth place with 10 points after an upset loss to Marblehead.
Danvers, which fell to 6-7-1 overall, had been 9-0-2 in its previous 11 contests vs. the Panthers. The two teams had tied their first meeting earlier in January, 4-4.
“Every year you seem to have 1-2 games where you just don’t have it, and clearly tonight we didn’t have it,” admitted Falcons’ bench boss Bill Sheehan. “We didn’t have our legs at all, and (Beverly) did a great job with great layers. We had no room to skate.
“The ice was tilted in their favor in the first period; we had some spurts in the second, but it wasn’t consistent. Inconsistency has been our Achilles’ hell all season. That and not doing the simple things and playing selfish hockey. A couple of times in our D zone, we’re standing there watching (Beverly senior star Logan) Bowen do his thing.”
Chin-Aleong played some of his best hockey of the 2025-26 season in the second period, stopping all nine Falcon shots he faced. He got his right skate on an attempt from Danvers defenseman Aiden Hockney at the right point six minutes in; less than four minutes later, he used his blocker to steer aside an off-wing bid from the Blue-and-White’s top marksman, Cooper Dunham, from the right circle. Chin-Aleong then calmly turned aside the ensuing rebound.
“Ty has been outstanding for us lately, really seeing the puck well and making every save he has to,” said Scott. “And for a team that can certainly score, we’ve been playing defense-first hockey, which is certainly helping.”
On Beverly’s second power play of the evening later in the second period, it cashed in. Defenseman Nate Wheeler, out front as a big body to take the goalie’s eyes away on the power play, stationed himself to the right of Danvers keeper Evan Morey as Mikey O’Leary spun towards the cage and flung a shot on net.
Morey (25 saves) stopped it by Wheeler swatted home the rebound on a high backhand, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead. It was the senior captain’s second goal of the season and third of his varsity career.
A little over two minutes later the Panthers doubled their lead when Bowen (3 points) snapped his team-leading 16th goal bar down after taking a pass from linemate Coby Malionek.
“There’s a hunger within these guys,” said Beverly head coach Andy Scott. “They’re not satisfied.”
“I asked the team after we lost to Winthrop (1-0 last week), ‘How can we be better? How can I coach better? And how can you play better individually?’ Everyone took accountability for things that they could do better, and each of the guys gave us one thing the team could do better. From that we came up with three non-negotiables for us … and since then we’ve played pretty good hockey.”
Just seven seconds into the third period, O’Leary gave the Garden City boys a 3-0 lead with his seventh goal, an unassisted tally.
“In the locker room beforehand we said ‘Let’s just go out there and buzz and put our foot on the gas when we can’. So I saw my chance, their defense kind of telegraphed the pass and I picked it off and beat the goalie blocker side. It was a great feeling; all the boys were fired up.”
A second power play goal midway through the third, this one a rebound off the stick of junior defenseman Teddy Fisher, accounted for his team’s fourth and final goal of the evening. Fisher, who came onto the ice as an extra attacker on a delayed penalty after Chin-Aleong skated to the bench, drove straight to the DHS cage to bang in the rebound.
Beverly 4, Danvers 0
at Raymond J. Bourque Arena, Endicott College
Danvers;0;0;0;0 Beverly;0;2;2;4 First period: No scoring.
Second period: B, Nate Wheeler (Mikey O’Leary, Logan Bowen), ppg, 11:15; B, Bowen (Coby Malionek), 13:21.
Third period: B, Mikey O’Leary (un), :07; B, Teddy Fisher (Ryan Everett, Bowen), ppg, 7:42.
Saves: D, Evan Morey 25; B, Ty Chin-Aleong 23.
Records: B, 7-4-2; D, 6-7-1.
Contact Phil Stacey
@PhilStacey_SN