Ice hockey: Jack Dyjach, Ben Remensnyder each tally twice in Amherst’s 6-1 win over Chicopee (PHOTOS)

AMHERST — The undefeated Amherst boys ice hockey team found itself in a tight contest late into the first period against a Chicopee team that hadn’t won yet through two games this season.

Chicopee scored first off the stick of Caleb Lundgren, a South Hadley native, to take a 1-0 lead less than six minutes into the game. Jack Dyjach responded with a goal four minutes later – assisted by Cooper Beckwith – to tie it up in an evenly-played first frame. Then, with two minutes left in the period, Dyjach struck once more, this time opening up the floodgates and completely changing the energy of the game.

The Hurricanes would ride Dyjach’s two first-period goals and eventually tack on four more goals over the next two periods to defeat the Pacers 6-1 on Monday night at Orr Rink.

Amherst’s first unit was responsible for each of its six goals in some way. Dyjach scored the first two, Ben Remensnyder netted the second two, and Beckwith and starting defenseman Skyler Ferro added one of his own, as well as an assist. Ethan Nompleggi also tacked on two assists, stepping up in the absence of Yuuki Ishida.

“Those are our leaders, and we expect that from them,” Hurricanes head coach Michael Rousseau said. “Jack is the lone junior, Cooper is a captain, Ethan Nompleggi, he’s an assistant captain, and I put my other two captains Liam Flynn and Skyler Ferro out there also. And they lead us. If they keep going the way they are, and they roll, this team is gonna hop on their back. That’s what their job is as leaders.”

Dyjach’s second goal injected plenty of confidence into his team heading into the first intermission up 2-1.

“That was a huge momentum shift,” Beckwith said. “Once we got that goal, we knew we were gonna win this game. We were definitely feeling good.”

Not only is that first line the oldest, most experienced, and perhaps the most talented, they also work extremely hard. And when the best players of the team are leading by example in terms of effort, everybody else follows.

“It’s a big part of our team, and we know if we work hard we can set the tone for everybody else,” Beckwith said. “I think it really helps the rest of the guys. We’re just proving to them that you can score by working really hard.”

It took awhile for that tone to be set. Chicopee had the lead for the majority of the first period, and Amherst struggled to possess the puck and set something up from its defensive end. 

The Hurricanes turned it over in their own end time and time again through the first handful of minutes, eventually leading to the Lundgren goal – which deflected off an Amherst defender and trickled by goalie Spencer McDonald.

Those turnovers aren’t going to cut it as the ‘Canes maneuver through their difficult regular season schedule, one that includes an out-of-state matchup with Brattleboro on Wednesday.

“Our forwards didn’t come back hard enough into our break-out position, and our defensemen were too late on making that pass if the forwards were in that position,” Rousseau said of his team’s struggles to exit the defensive zone. “The other piece, we started panicking. We’ve worked on it in practice, and we know it’s something we can clean up. We’re going up to Brattleboro on Wednesday, so we have to be prepared for a competitive game.”

Chicopee goalie Devin Carleton, yet another player from South Hadley (one of eight on the Pacers cooperative roster), was tremendous in goal on Monday. Although the scoreboard read six goals, Carleton made countless spectacular saves – doing everything in his power to keep Chicopee in it.

Even when Carleton was with South Hadley, he always seemed to save his best stuff for Amherst.

“I’m gonna give nothing but praise to Devin Carleton, their goalie,” Rousseau said. “He’s from South Hadley – a lot of them are from South Hadley – and every time he plays against us, that kid throws something at us. Whether he’s at South Hadley or Chicopee. Luckily, the boys stayed the course and kept plugging away, and we finally got a couple by him. But credit to them, those kids play hard.”

This year, Rousseau has encouraged all of his defenders – especially Flynn and Ferro – to push up on offense more often than not, sometimes even with the puck. Flynn’s stick-handling and speed at his size is a huge advantage for Amherst on offense.

And with this new era of hockey where defensemen can be used as skilled offensive players, Flynn loves having the chance to score – which is typically rare for his position.

“I think if I’m just playing confident, especially with teams I know really well and know I’ll have opportunities to skate around, I’ll gladly take the puck up,” Flynn said. “I know it helps our offense if I’m playing confident, and I’m just doing what I can to put the puck in the net.”

Amherst (4-0) makes the aforementioned trip up to Vermont on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m., while Chicopee (0-3) heads out to Lakeville to battle Apponequet on Wednesday at 4 pm.