Newburyport, MA – The playoffs have officially arrived and it’s win or go home for both teams. Tonight we traveled to Newburyport to see the 5-seeded Triton Vikings take on the visiting 28-seeded Diman Bengals. We had this matchup circled on our calendar as two teams who could fly up and down the sheet and this one felt like it had the chance to be an exciting tilt. The parking lot was filled up early and it was extra cold inside the rink: the opening chords of Iron Man blared out of the speakers as the teams stepped onto the ice and we were ready for hockey.
In the first period, you could tell that both teams were feeling the early jitters as there were some wayward passes and more than a few shots missing the net. Each team wanted to set the tone but there was no set territorial advantage either way. There were rushes back and forth up and down the sheet and lots of scrums around the net at the whistles. Both teams were competing hard: blocking shots and using active sticks to create turnovers. The game remained scoreless until the 10-minute mark when Diman would strike first. Junior forward Jesse Costa found freshman Caleb Faria out front and he was able to bang home the rebound to make it 1-0 Bengals. Triton responded with two of their best shifts of the night and they were able to create a Grade A look of their own that they would bury. It was a beautiful set play off an outlet by senior defender Connor Rumph who whistled a pass up to senior forward Mason Colby who saw Luke Sullivan driving the royal road all by himself and he fired it home to tie the game up. From there, the game started to get more physical as both sides were talking smack and the physicality picked up in a big way and after the dust settled, Diman would have a power play to start the second.
In the middle frame, Diman was quick to cash in on the power play as Triton was whistled for another infraction early to make it a 5-on-3 and sophomore Kane Aguiar took a feed from Ryan Sandford and wired it far post and in. Just forty seconds later they would add another power play goal as the puck was thrown on net by Jacoby Broulliard and cashed in at the net by Faria for his second on the evening: 3-1 Diman. This game felt like the scales were tipping in the Bengals’ direction, but Triton took things to another level after that. Just a minute later they responded as senior Vinny Magee converted a rebound off a shot by Colby: 3-2 was our score. Three minutes later Triton would tie it up 4-on-4 as this time Magee fed Colby at the far dot who wired it top shelf. Now the momentum belonged entirely to the Vikings and they would take the lead two minutes later as captain Josh Hersey whipped a shot on net from the half wall that beat the goalie: 4-3 was our score. The back half of the period featured both teams taking their best swings and tensions were high. Neither team was able to convert further and we went to the third as Triton held a one-goal lead.
In the third period, Triton put their foot on the accelerator and put this one out of reach. They used a strong cycle game to play keep away with the puck and their ability to weave through the attacking zone caused matchup issues which came to a head four and a half minutes in as senior forward Lukas Tinkham used his quickness to force a turnover at the blue line and he was able to stash it up high on the breakaway: 5-3 Vikings. At that point, the time of possession belonged almost entirely to Triton and they refused to give it up. Five minutes later they would close out the scoring as junior Michael Taylor made a slick rush up the right wing and found Sullivan driving up the middle for his second tally on the night to make it 6-3 which would be our final score. Diman did make a final push in the last three minutes on a power play and created a couple of quality looks, but Triton would advance and they will face the winner of 12-seeded Watertown/Wayland vs. 21-seeded Pembroke.
Three Stars:
- F Mason Colby, Triton
- F Luke Sullivan, Triton
- F Caleb Faria, Diman