Marblehead boys hockey bows to Beverly

SALEM – Twice on Saturday at Rockett Arena, the Beverly hockey team was behind reigning Division 3 North champion Marblehead and looked like it might be in trouble against the Headers. The youthful Panthers, however, showed exactly the heart they had.Beverly rallied twice to tie the game with power play goals and then got a third man advantage goal from Brenden Mitchell with 9:42 left in the game to take a 3-2 win.Click here for a photo gallery.”These kids didn’t quit,” Beverly coach Bob Gilligan said. “They have tremendous heart and you can’t measure that in an athlete. They don’t want to lose.”Beverly (7-2-1) had the Headers (5-3-2) flummoxed all game long leaving Marblehead coach Bob Jackson grasping for answers after the game.”We’ve got to go back, look in the mirror and find ourselves a little bit,” Jackson said. “We have the ability but need to work a little harder right now.”Marblehead started well on Saturday as junior wing Austin Haley tapped home a Liam Gillis rebound past Tony Walsh 3:27 in to give the Headers a 1-0 lead. But looks were deceiving as the Panthers began to take control of the game and that hard work drew a penalty on Ben Koopman for tripping at 11:57.Beverly took advantage of the power play as freshman Connor Irving was camped at the right post and was able to swat home a second chance on a Mitchell rebound for his fourth goal of the season and a tie game after one period.The second period started almost identically to the first as Haley picked up an Aaron DeAngelo pass and tucked a wraparound inside the left post to give Marblehead the lead back at 2:18.Almost immediately, however, Beverly counterpunched and went back on the power play when Gillis was called for roughing. Mitch Hamor, the Panthers’ leading scorer, made Marblehead pay for the boo-boo as his acute angle shot caromed off Tony Cuzner’s pads and slipped through his legs to tie the game again at 2-2.”These kids have such great competitiveness,” Gilligan said. “They don’t quit at all.”The Headers nearly took the lead back late in the period when Alex Whitmore picked up a rebound but fired a shot past a wide open net, sending the teams to the locker room and second intermission still deadlocked at 2-2.Marblehead got an early power play in the third period when Sean Munzing was called for tripping at 2:03 but the Panthers killed off that man advantage and then went back on the power play themselves at 4:07 when Koopman was called for high sticking.Working the puck beautifully, Mitchell finished off a pretty passing play by Irving and Hamor with his eighth goal of the season at 5:18 to make it 3-2 Panthers.”As coaches, we can’t remember the last time we gave up three power play goals in a game,” Jackson said. “We were a little bit too passive in our penalty kill.”Marblehead had another power play with a little over five minutes left but couldn’t convert and would pull Cuzner for an extra attacker with 1:16 left. The Panthers held the fort beautifully and then dodged a bullet in the final second as Ryan Dempsey fanned on a tip attempt of a Jake Kulevich pass with an open net in front of him.”Hopefully winning a game like this will give us more confidence,” Gilligan said. “Confidence is huge for these kids.”