Newburyport, MA – MassNZ took a break from shoveling snow just in time to catch a North Shore rivalry matchup on a Tuesday. It was the Clippers of Newburyport taking on the Indians of Amesbury. These two towns share a border and that was never more evident than when we arrived, as every parking spot was taken and the facilities crew had to open up a secondary lot to accommodate the fans. Both towns showed up well tonight and both were vocal early, but we’d have to give the ravenous edge to Amesbury.
In the first period it was a series of fits and starts. Both teams had plenty of puck possession, but none of it was sustained. Lots of battles in neutral ice and at each blue line led to turnovers galore and both teams struggled to create momentum. In the opening five minutes however, Newburyport would open the scoring. What seemed like an open shot from the blue line took a bizarre bounce in front of the net and past the goalie’s glove to give the Clippers the lead off the stick of junior Braden Arel. After the goal, it settled back into the ebb and flow game with both teams creating Grade A looks but none of them would find the back of net. We went to the second period with the score 1-0.
In the second period, it was a blitzkrieg of scoring and it all started in the first minute. Amesbury sophomore Tommy Puorro grabbed a rebound in front and deposited it to tie us up at 1-1. Two minutes later, Newburyport would respond as junior Luke MacIsaac set up junior Henry Waddell from the faceoff dot for a snipe to make it 2-1 Clippers. They would add another two minutes later as the scoring was reversed on the power play with a nice give-and-go play from Waddell to MacIsaac: 3-1 Clippers. Amesbury came right back 40 seconds later with a response thanks to a beautiful individual effort by sophomore Grady Stickney who wheeled through two defenders and snapped one home to make it 3-2. Two minutes later, Newburyport would get that tally back on the power play. Junior Owen Mongeau, who is far more than a pawn in the game of life, threw a puck at the net and it deflected off a defender in front and into the back of the net: 4-2 was our score. Roughly three minutes later Amesbury would fire back as senior Owen Bartniski circled the net and found fellow senior Wes Ackerman at the far post for a tap in to make it 4-3. Just over a minute and a half later, Newburyport would get that score right back as MacIsaac stole a puck behind the net, walked right in front and deposited far side to restore the two goal cushion. But, it turns out he wasn’t done as exactly one minute later he snuck to the front of the net and grabbed a loose puck off an initial shot by Waddell and took two swipes at it: the second went top shelf to make it 6-3, and complete the hat trick. After all of the back and forth, the score was 6-3 after 30 minutes of play.
We were unsure what the final 15 would bring, but we got our answer in the second minute of play as Amesbury came out strong and got themselves back into the game following a beauty of a drop pass by Ackerman, who took a hit on the rush to make a play and the subsequent feed was fired home from between the circles by junior Lincoln Kime to make it 6-4. As has been the case all night, Newburyport had the answer but this time it took all of four minutes for the response to come. It all started with a nice pass out of the corner by Waddell who found senior Davis Pons open at the faceoff dot and he buried it near side to make it 7-4. Ironically, that would be our last tally of the evening and both teams settled into a groove as they were creating looks but they were each one and done’s. The Clippers would defend home ice with the three-goal win.
Three Stars:
- F Luke MacIsaac, Newburyport
- F Henry Waddell, Newburyport
- F Grady Stickney, Amesbury