NEWBURYPORT — There’s no way that anybody had this on their Bingo card.
Just a year ago, Newburyport and Gloucester put on a game for the ages with over 1,000 fans packed into the Graf for a Division 2 Round of 16 game. That certainly wasn’t the first time the two longstanding rivals had met in the tournament, but it had to go down as one of the more memorable. Then, of course, the two have scheduled each other during the regular season for nearly the past two decades — with the Fishermen earning a little revenge for last year’s playoff loss by beating the Clippers back in December.
So based off that, we all expected to see another classic in Tuesday’s highly-anticipated playoff rematch, right?
Eh, they can’t all be winners.
While the final shots on goal were close, the end result on the scoreboard certainly wasn’t. Newburyport’s electric top line of Henry Waddell, Luke MacIsaac and Jack Sullivan accounted for five goals with seven assists, and there was a running clock for the final eight minutes of the game as the Clippers crushed the Fishermen in the first round of the Division 2 tournament, 6-1. Yes, you read that correctly, there was a running clock for the majority of the third period.
And for the second year in a row, Newburyport got to end Gloucester’s winter.
“I said that to the guys after the game, we’ve never beaten Gloucester like that,” said Newburyport coach Paul Yameen. “I don’t really think it was a 6-1 game, the shots were pretty much even, so we took advantage of our opportunities. And it wasn’t just last year, we had played them before in some big games in the tournament. So there’s a rivaly here. We love playing them, and we knew that we had to be at our best. So I think we played really well tonight.”
Newburyport (12-9-2) advanced by TKO.
Now, the No. 11 Clippers will travel down to play No. 6 Milton in the Round of 16 on Saturday for a 6 p.m. puck drop at Ulin Rink. There were questions on if this would be more of a “rebuilding year” with only five seniors and the majority underclassmen making up the roster. But the fact now stands that in all four years of the new MIAA statewide playoff format, the Clippers have made the Sweet 16 every time.
And on Saturday night, they’ll try to punch their ticket to their third straight quarterfinal.
“I think our schedule has something to do with (the yearly playoff success),” said Yameen. “It’s never been about the wins and losses here, it’s been about compete and the competition. And when you play the types of teams that we play, we always feel like we’re battle-tested heading into the tournament.”
Right away on Tuesday, Newburyport left no doubt.
Just four minutes into the game, MacIsaac glided into the zone and sent a shot on goal that was saved, but the rebound found Waddell for the easy tap-in. Minutes later, Waddell sent up a beautiful stretch pass to Sullivan to start a 2-on-1 rush, and the freshman feathered a pretty pass over to MacIsaac who roofed one to make it 2-0 after the first period.
“I mean, we’re a young line but we’ve been connecting,” said MacIsaac. “Especially these past few weeks, we’ve been really connecting and moving the puck well, just overall skating really well and knowing where each other are. Me and (Waddell) have been playing together our whole lives, and Jack, he’s a freshman who joined us this year and has been great for us.”
Truly, for a sophomore-sophomore-freshman line to account for 12 total points in a playoff game … that’s pretty special. The trio have been the team’s top scorers all year, with Waddell (14g, 22a) leading the way followed by MacIsaac (16g, 18a) and Sullivan (12g, 12a).
And after that first period, they were just getting started.
MacIsaac won the race to the puck behind the Gloucester net to open the second, and was able to jam a wrap-around that bounced over the goalie’s leg and in. Some pretty tic-tac-toe passing between the three led to a Sullivan goal with four minutes left in the period, then just two minutes later, the Fishermen somehow left MacIsaac wide open on the far post, and Tommy Gagnon found him for the easy tally to complete the hat-trick.
That made it 5-0 heading into the third.
“We just came to practice the past few days with just a ‘win’ mentality,” said MacIsaac. “We came in with nothing to lose and just threw everything at them. I mean, we’re a young line, but we came out hard and just kept pushing all three periods.”
And if there was any hope to make the final score respectable, Newburyport quickly snuffed it out.
Gloucester (10-9-2) was called for a penalty just 45 seconds into the final frame, and it didn’t take long for defenseman Will Forrest to blast a shot from the blue line that buried into the top-right corner to make it 6-0. A running clock soon followed, and many of the reserves handled the rest of the game. The Fishermen would find the back of the net with three minutes left to ruin the shutout bid for Damien Lamb (21 saves), when Cam Amero raced down the right boards and fired one that snuck into the back post.
But for the most part, Lamb was strong in his cage. Plus, he had plenty of help in from of him with defensemen Forrest, Alex Lambert, Brian Lucy and Jagger Gudaitis all stepping up to limit the quality chances for the Fishermen.
“Damien played well tonight, and I think Brian Lucy, who we moved back there two weeks ago, has really improved on D,” said Yameen. “So we’re definitely getting better back there.”
Newburyport 6, Gloucester 1
Gloucester (10-9-2): 0 0 1 — 1
Newburyport (12-9-2): 2 3 1 — 6
Division 2 First Round
Goals: N — Luke MacIsaac 3, Henry Wadell, Jack Sullivan, Will Forrest; G — Cam Amero
Assists: N — Waddell 3, MacIsaac 3, Sullivan, Finn McNeil, Tommy Gagnon
Saves: N — Damien Lamb 21; G — Trey Marrone 18