NORTH BILLERICA — It was solely 4 years in the past that there have been solely 9 gamers on St. Bernard’s boys hockey roster. On Saturday on the Chelmsford Discussion board, the Bernardians accomplished among the finest turnarounds in latest reminiscence.
Senior goaltender Chase Bergeron dazzled, stopping 44 Winthrop pictures whereas 5 completely different gamers recorded a aim as ninth-seeded St. Bernard’s pulled off the upset of the defending Div. 4 champs, 6-3, to make subsequent Sunday’s state closing at TD Backyard.
“That is unbelievable,” St. Bernard’s coach Steve Sylvia stated. “We’re a small college in Fitchburg with 200 children in it. And it’s been the final three years constructing this factor and we knew we had been gonna be good. We simply didn’t know the way good we had been going to be.”
For big parts of the sport, the Bernardians (21-3-0) discovered themselves hemmed in their very own finish. However Bergeron was there each time his group wanted a giant cease, leaving the Vikings (15-7-2) shaking their heads many instances.
“I imply, he’s simply superior. He was simply superior. I wouldn’t need to need to shoot towards him,” Sylvia stated.
The Vikings broke in high simply 4:20 in when Bert Kline transformed off a net-mouth scramble. It stayed 1-0 into the ultimate minutes of the primary interval when Matt Sylvia raced down ice and ripped house his thirty sixth aim of the season to tie the sport at one.
Winthrop, nevertheless, appeared to take the momentum again on the following shift as Charlie Ferreira fired house a Braedon Lounsbury rebound for a 2-1 lead after one.
It appeared just like the Vikings had been about to run the Bernardians out of the barn as they started a 19-shot second-period barrage. Bergeron, nevertheless, made a number of important saves to maintain it 2-1.
Will Canada gave St. Bernard’s an enormous carry when he tipped house Owen Tolson’s left-point blast at 3:02 to tie the sport. It proved to be an omen because the Bernardians would make good use of the 5 pictures they bought within the center body.
Winthrop had a golden probability to return in entrance with 32 seconds of a two-man benefit, however they didn’t convert. The Bernardians’ gifted forwards made them pay for it late within the interval.
Phoenix Fortier, who was sensible all recreation, netted his twenty second of the season at 12:19 to present his group its first lead of the night time. On the following shift, Evan Walker crashed the web and earned his twenty third aim of the yr off a free rebound, which stunningly gave St. Bernard’s a 4-2 lead after half-hour.
Desperately in want of two because the third interval ticked away, Winthrop’s Joe Pumphret took a deflected shot and fired it into an open web with 7:34 left to chop the deficit to at least one.
Into the highlight stepped Toby Beaulac as he discovered a free puck between a defender’s skates and ripped one previous James Lyman to revive the two-goal cushion. Fortier added an empty web marker with 1:55 left to clinch it.
“You don’t want the very best gamers, you simply want the correct ones,” Steve Sylvia stated. “The appropriate ones got here to this college.”
