WEST SPRINGFIELD — Byron Dudas sat in the stands a year ago and watched the Easthampton hockey team win the Western Massachusetts Division 3A championship.
The then-junior at Hampshire Regional was playing for the Chiefs, a junior program in Connecticut. But Dudas wanted a change and joined the Eagles cooperative program for his senior year.
Scoring goals is never an option for the defenseman, who had yet to score on the season entering Thursday’s 3A championship against Belchertown at the Olympia Ice Center.
“I’m a defensive defenseman,” Dudas said. “Defense is the first thing on my mind.”
In a scoreless game it was Dudas who broke the ice, not Easthampton’s pair of 100-point forwards in CJ Tenczar and Garren Fugiel.
Dudas’ tally sparked Easthampton to a 5-2 victory over the Orioles and a second straight championship.
“That was awesome,” Tenczar said. “He needed to get one at one point in the season. We got that power-play goal and it was game on from there.”
Dudas gathered a cross-ice pass from Tenczar and had an angle for a split second on Belchertown goalie Ethan Rajpold. Dudas slid the puck in front to Jake Batchelder, but a Belchertown defenseman crashing down kicked the puck past Rajpold for Dudas’ first career goal.
“It felt (expletive) great,” Dudas said with a wide grin. “It felt really great. It got the guys going.”
The Eagles (13-7-3) will play the winner of Sunday’s Central Mass. 3A final between Northbridge (15-6-1) and Lunenburg (14-7-1). The state final will be held next week at a date, time and place to be determined.
“It was great to see that we could come out these last three games and put the pieces together with all the things we’ve been working on all year,” Eagles coach Bill Grise said.
While fifth-seeded Easthampton celebrated it championship, the No. 3 Orioles consoled each other. It was an emotional game for Belchertown, which played just two days following the death of senior and former Oriole Brendan Conroy.
Conroy’s family was in attendance and his father Joseph was the first person to great the players as they exited the rink after the loss.
“It was very emotional for the team,” Belchertown coach Matt Crutch said.
Dudas’ goal sparked the Eagles and tempered any energy the Orioles started with. Belchertown skated onto the ice with Conroy’s jerseys and hung them behind the bench. Every Belchertown player had a sticker with Conroy’s No. 13 on the top. Meanwhile, the Belchertown student section filled the upper half of the balcony and stood the entire game.
But the Eagles made it 2-0 with 4:40 to go in the first to take control. The play developed behind the net where Matt Sullivan found Tenczar in front.
Tenczar made it 3-0 with 9:39 left in the second period. Batchelder broke in but a defenseman pushed him wide. He managed to get the puck around the net as Rajpold (21 saves) dove and extended his stick to keep it out.
Tenczar was alone on the back side and netted it high.
“Batchy worked hard for it,” Tenczar said. “He took the defenseman wide and went around the net. I just happened to be in the right place and popped it in.”
Just over a minute later, Garren Fugiel (assist) made it 4-0.
“We were concerned about the way this game could have gone from the start,” Crutch said. “With the whole week, it looked like the boys were pretty worn out by the time the puck dropped today. A lot of emotions going through them. It wasn’t easy.”
Belchertown had a chance to get on the board with 5:40 left in the second, but Chris Buffone hit the post.
“They call it puck luck and we didn’t have any puck luck tonight,” Crutch said. “We didn’t get really any bounces and that’s kind of attributed to the guys just being worn down. We always say good bounces go to teams that work hard and it wasn’t that we weren’t working hard, I just think we were really exhausted tonight.”
The game opened up in the third and Belchertown took advantage.
A turnover at the net led to Vaughn Gillen’s first goal with 11:24 to go.
Five minutes later Gillen struck again as Belchertown made it interesting.
“They came out and played hard for 45 minutes,” Grise said of Belchertown.
The Orioles played the final 2:18 with an empty net. After several long attempts went wide, a clearing pass was missed at the blue line and Batchelder (two assists) skated in alone and scored with 0.4 seconds left.
As soon as the puck hit the ice on the ensuing faceoff, the Eagles bench erupted and the players charged goalie Tyler Cortis (26 saves).
With sticks, gloves and helmets strewn about the ice, the Eagles, who have players from Hampshire Regional, Northampton and Smith Vocational, celebrated their title.
“We had a rough start to the season,” Tenczar said. “It wasn’t how we planned it, but we came together in the end. It feels amazing.”
Belchertown graduates three seniors: Andrew Mugford, and brothers Justin and Brian Pendrick.
“Brian Pendrick and Justin Pendrick, those kids worked their asses off,” Crutch said. “Andrew Mugford is a great guy. He’ll be missed as a defenseman. They left the program in a good situation.”