Fenwick icemen can’t come back against Newburyport

SALEM – Even though they had found themselves in a 3-0 first-period hole, the Bishop Fenwick icemen still had a chance to deadlock Newburyport late in last night’s Division 2 North first-round contest, after having gotten to within one goal midway through the third stanza. Despite numerous opportunities, they couldn’t convert the tying goal, and the Clippers sailed away with a 4-3 victory at Rockett Arena.Newburyport’s reward is facing top seed Winthrop on Friday evening (at Salem State, 7:45).Fenwick (12-6-3) had just gone on the power play midway through the final period, and only 30 seconds elapsed before forward Tyler Burgess netted his second score of the contest (all three Crusader goals came on the extra-man advantage), tipping in a teammate’s shot past goalie Chris Eiserman. Though Fenwick attacked throughout the rest of the way, the squad couldn’t get the equalizer.Fenwick coach Bo Tierney pulled goalie Craig Forrest for an extra skater with 29 seconds remaining, but the ploy didn’t pan out.”Being in a three-goal hole against anyone is not where you want to be, but I was very proud of how we played,” Tierney said. “I told the kids after the first period that I didn’t think we played badly. I honestly thought we were going to go into overtime.”Newburyport (14-4-4) struck first just over four minutes in. Winger Derek Freeman picked up a loose puck near mid-ice, skated in on a breakaway, swooped in on Forrest on the right side, and beat the goalie to open the scoring.Teammate Kyle McElroy increased the lead four minutes later when he took a feed from teammate Collin Cusack, and McElroy, standing in front, one-timed the puck past Forrest for a 2-0 Clippers advantage.McElroy added his second score two minutes later when he one-timed another shot into the Crusader net to put Fenwick in a seemingly large hole.Yet the Crusaders opened the second period with a 52-second man advantage, and defenseman James Gattuso brought the team to within 3-1, with his blast from just inside the Clippers blue line eluding the glove of Eiserman with just over a minute having been played.Both teams battled through the next few minutes, and Newburyport soon found itself again shorthanded. Fenwick quickly took advantage, with a slap by Burgess beating Eiserman midway through the stanza to bring the Crusaders to within 3-2.Yet only nine seconds passed before Fenwick was whistled for a call, and McElroy returned the favor, completing his hat trick to increase the lead to 4-2.”We got that big lead, but I think we got complacent as well,” said Clippers coach Paul Yameen. “When you have a lead like that (the 3-0 first period lead), you have to stick the knife in as soon as possible, and we didn’t do that. We were standing around, and Fenwick was able to get back into the game. We give them a great deal of credit.”