RallyNorth.net

Clippers can't breach stout Redmen defense

Thursday, March, 06 By John Shimer
Staff writer

Nine in a row and no further.

After a remarkable run of play capped off by the win for the ages over Gloucester in the Division 2 North quarterfinal, Newburyport's season came to an end in the semifinal last night, 4-0, to a team that has not lost a Division 2 game all season in Tewksbury.

What looked to be a game of clashing styles | Newburyport with its four 30-plus point scorers (Kyle McElroy, Derek McCoy, Kevin Holmes, Derek Freeman) and a Tewksbury team starring a goalie Joshua Silberberg who had a 1.08 goals against average as well as the Merrimack Valley Conference player of the year, defenseman Dan Grasso | turned into a one-sided affair quickly.

From Tewksbury's first shot, the Redmen looked to be more in command of what they wanted to do from a game-plan stand point, while the Clippers looked to be somewhat sluggish and could never flow in rhythm.

After keeping most of the possession in the Newburyport defensive zone, Tewksbury struck first 5:45 into the period when Rob McVey found Marc Legere on the right side of the ice in front of goal. Legere's pass across the face of goal found Mike Taylor, who then came back to Newburyport goalie Anthony Federico's glove side before finishing with the backhand.

While the Redmen continued to carry the play with a 1-0 lead, Newburyport sparingly were able to attack Josh Silberberg's goal. The Clippers best chance of the period came nearly two minutes after giving up the goal when Derek Freeman found a streaking Derek McCoy for another backhanded try, but Silberberg went down to make a good pad save.

Holding off Tewksbury for the rest of the period, Newburyport made a costly mistake with 12.3 seconds to play as third-line forward Corey Ruane picked up a tripping penalty.

Twenty-two seconds into the second period was all it took for the Redmen to put their second goal on the board from the power play. Working the puck behind the net Paul Tosto passed the puck to Tom MacLeod on the left side of Federico's goal, who promptly switched the puck over to Scott Capraro out at the left point. Capraro unleashed a vicious one-timer that went top shelf for the 2-0 lead.

Things would only go downhill from there for the Clippers as Tewksbury scored two more goals in the period.

A second tripping penalty on Newburyport's third line | Kirk Dillon was the violator on this occasion | opened the door for another power-play goal as Grasso gave the Redmen a nearly insurmountable 3-0 lead with the unassisted goal at the 4:16 mark in the second period.

Newburyport finally earned its first power play opportunity 30 seconds later after Legere picked up a cross-checking penalty, but the Clippers did not get the desired results they were looking for. What was a sloppy power play from the beginning ended in disaster.

Just before the power play came to a close Tewksbury's MacLeod was able to poke check the puck from the Newburyport defense just outside the Clipper defensive zone and skate in to bury an easy breakaway for the game's last goal at the 6:03 mark.

"We just started slow, and when we got out of the first period down 1-0, I thought we would be OK," said Newburyport coach Paul Yameen. "I was a little bit disappointed, though, because it seemed like we lost our composure in the second period with two or three penalties where we let up power play goals.

"And a team like that, if you fall behind, they're very good defensively and have a very good goalie. It's hard to play catch-up," explained Yameen. "Give them all the credit in the world they outplayed us today and deserved to win." MVC coach of the year Derek Doherty said the Redmen tried to spread out the more hard-hitting and physical Newburyport side. "I knew they were gong to be big and physical, and if we could spread the ice out we might have some success," Doherty said. "I run three lines, one-two-three, and we tried to wear them down. Each shift we wanted to make sure the guys were flying when they hit the ice, and that shift by shift we don't take anything off."

Although the loss left a bitter taste in his team's mouth, Yameen said the Clippers had a terrific season and should be a favorite next year with most of the young players of this year's team returning.

"I told the guys after the game that we as a coaching staff couldn't be more proud of what they accomplished this year," Newburyport coach Paul Yameen said. "A lot of that reflects on the senior class. We had a lot of young kids playing. These guys groomed them well. Because of that, you can mark this down: We will be back."

Additional stories:

• Tewksbury spoils Newburyport's Cinderella story