The Newburyport girls hockey team traveled to Gloucester Wednesday night looking to play upset and pick up their fifth win of the season.
The Clippers did just that, avenging a lopsided loss to the Fishermen earlier this year by narrowly beating them on their home ice, 1-0.
Newburyport Goalie Cody Saboliauskas had herself a night with 20 saves to secure the shutout in the competitive clash, while Olivia Watson had the long goal with a third period strike.
“Gloucester’s always a really tough game for us,” Newburyport head coach Josh Freeman said.
The Clippers played excellent on defense and came in with a plan to stop the Gloucester (now 7-11) attack.
“The teams are pretty evenly matched historically, so our gameplan tonight was just to try to beat everyone to the box and be really physical and aggressive,” Freeman added.
Newburyport — which fell to Gloucester, 6-1, back in mid-January — knew they needed to be on their A-game against a tough Gloucester team that had won three straight games heading into the battle.
The Gloucester attack struggled from the start despite some good looks by senior captain Keagan Jewell and others, but ultimately could not find the back of the net.
“Just a tough one. Obviously they are a much better team than when we beat him the first time this year,” Gloucester head coach Rob Parsons said.
The Gloucester offense was flat from the beginning, and failing to generate any goals is never a way you can win a game.
“Sometimes you come out a little flat and today we just didn’t have the energy maybe that we could have,” Parsons said. “You can’t win if you don’t score.”
Through two periods the score remained deadlocked at 0-0 with great goaltending from both Saboliauskas and Gloucester netminder Kaydin Cusumano, who had 15 saves herself.
Cusumano was strong between the pipes all evening, but the opportunities for the Clippers kept coming to start the third period and they finally capitalized for the game’s lone goal.
With nine minutes to go in that decisive third, Bella Belanger and Caroline Jones would move the puck around and find Watson, who put her team in front for good.
“It came down to that one shot; we kind of figured that was how it was gonna go,” Freeman said.
The hockey gods were on Newburyport’s side in this one with a timely bounce for their only goal to give them the victory.
“Great goaltending on both sides and I think both teams played really hard,” Freeman said. “We just kind of got the bounce this time.”
With the final minutes counting down, the Fishermen had some great looks from both Jewell and Kaya Collins, but the defense from the Clippers ultimately proved too strong. Relying on their goalie, Saboliauskas stepped up in the final minutes to clinch the road victory and the shutout.
“Two great goalies playing. They both played really well,” Parsons said. “A lot of good saves, a couple big ones from Kaydin.”
Needless to say, both goalies were the story of the game, making timely saves for their team. Unfortunately for Gloucester that one goal was the deciding factor.
Now the Fishermen will turn their attention to Saturday’s road tilt at Medford before wrapping up the regular season at Bishop Fenwick next Wednesday.
Newburyport 1, Gloucester 0
at Talbot Rink, Gloucester
Gloucester 0 0 0 | 0
Newburyport 0 0 1 | 1
Scoring summary
First period: No scoring.
Second period: No scoring.
Third Period: N, Olivia Watson, (Bella Belanger, Caroline Jones) 9:51.
Saves: N, Cody Saboliauskas 20; G, Kaydin Cusumano 15.
Records: N, 5-11; G, 7-11