GLOUCESTER — On his team’s 64th shot on net of the evening, Anthony Barror gave his Beverly High boys hockey team its first win of the 2024-25 season Saturday night.
Barror’s second goal of the game, coming 43 seconds into overtime, culminated a wild comeback for the Panthers and gave them a 5-4 victory over host Rockport at the Talbot Rink.
“I took the puck behind the net, went around a few of their kids, weaved into the middle and sniped it bar down over the goalie’s glove,” said the 15-year-old Barror, who is coming off of an all-star season for the Beverly High golf team. “We knew we had to just keep shooting and that our shots were eventually going to fall.”
The Panthers (now 1-2) trailed 3-0 just five-and-a-half minutes into the contest thanks to Rockport goals from Matt Coughlin, Ollie York and captain Ryan Meaney on their team’s first five shots. But the visitors rallied to get within one (4-3) after tallying three times in the second period, with Barror, defenseman Teddy Fisher (on a delayed penalty call) and Coby Malinoek all connecting.
In the third, junior center Logan Bowen followed up a shot short side rebound by putting it home with 4:33 to go, tying things up.
“It was like watching a horror movie at first,” admitted Beverly head coach Andy Scott. “But coming back from down three that early speaks a lot to the resiliency of this group. We had lost basically two one-goal games to start the season (3-1 with an empty netter allowed vs. Marblehead, and 1-0 at Amesbury), and we took a time out there to say there was still a lot of hockey left for us to do our thing. And we only gave up nine shots the rest of the way.”
Beverly’s win offset an amazing 59-save performance from Rockport senior captain Cooper Miller in net. The Hamilton-Wenham student made 18 saves in the first period, 15 in the second and a staggering 25 in the third.
“Cooper is not Superman, as much as we want him to be sometimes and as much as he may look that way sometimes,” Rockport (1-3) coach Garrett Stevens acknowledged. “With 64 shots, he can’t be expected to stop all of those.”
“There was frustration on our part, for sure, on that amount of shots and not seeing them go in,” added Scott. “But we told them it was just a matter of making small adjustments; shoot left pad instead of the right, try going blocker side instead of the glove. The boys stayed with it.”
Stevens, who praised the play of third line right wing and penalty killing specialist Timothy Patrick, said his team needs to put this one behind them quickly as they prepare to face Nashoba Tech on Monday.
“It’ll be how we respond to adversity. We have to have a short memory with this one,” said Stevens, whose club also got a goal from Ben Rainer plus two assists from Ryan Fazio. “It’s a quick turnaround for us now, and we can either dig our way out, or keep digging down. I told the guys losing’s no fun and I don’t want us to keep digging down.”
Beverly is off until Saturday, when it takes on Rockport again, this time as the home squad at Bourque Arena.
Beverly 5, Rockport 4 (OT)
at Talbot Rink, Gloucester
Beverly;0;3;1;1;5
Rockport;3;1;0;0;4
First period: R, Matt Coughlin (Ryan Meaney, Ryan Fazio), 2:14; Ollie York (Ben Rainer), 4:11; Meaney (Coughlin, Fazio), 5:29.
Second period: B, Anthony Barror (Tim Fisher), 1:24; B, Fisher (Mikey O’Leary, Nathan Wheeler), 9:48; R, Rainer (un), 10:12; B, Coby Malinoek (un), 12:17.
Third period: B, Logan Bowen (Jonny Mezza, Ryan Everett), 10:27.
Overtime: B, Barror (un), :43.
Saves: B, P.J. Redman 10; R, Cooper Miller 59.
Records: B, 1-2; R, 1-3.