What an all-time performance from Chase Pelletier.
There’s putting the team on your back, then there’s what the junior forward did for Pentucket hockey on Tuesday night. The No. 22 Panthers were the underdogs traveling over to No. 11 Lunenburg for a Division 4 first round game. But Pelletier couldn’t be stopped and was simply incredible, scoring all five goals to lead the team to the upset victory, 5-2.
For Pentucket (9-12-0), it was the program’s first playoff win since 2018.
“I’m so proud of Chase and the entire team,” said Pentucket coach Dan Bly. “First playoff win for the program in a few years feels pretty good, but at this point it’s not even about the wins. This group just wants to stay together. We’re having too much fun and aren’t ready for it to end just yet.”
Pelletier now has an area-high 27 goals on the season.
He made it a 1-0 game after the first period, then scored two more in the second to make it 3-1 heading into the third. His fourth would come with 7:30 left, then after Lunenburg scored to make it 4-2, he would send home the dagger with just over two minutes left.
“Chase is a fantastic young man and phenomenal hockey player,” said Bly. “We’ve relied on him a ton this season, but last night, he took it to another level. Man, was it fun to watch. And the rest of the team played fantastic as well. They all raised their games to try and match him.”
Pentucket will now either travel to No. 6 Dedham for the Round of 16, or host No. 27 Rockland if the Bulldogs can pull off the upset on Wednesday night.
Triton hoop bows out
First off, a round of applause to Triton for even getting to this point.
We all knew that the Vikings had to win their final two games of the regular season to qualify for the Division 3 playoffs, and they came up clutch and got it done with victories over Northeast Metro and Pentucket. But on Tuesday night, the ride unfortunately came to an end for the No. 42 Vikings, falling to No. 23 Dedham in the preliminary round, 66-46.
Liam Friis hit three 3s and led Triton (10-11) with 13 points, while Harrison Huynh added 12 and both James Tanona and Mateus Pinto chipped in 8.