WMass hockey: Easthampton prevails against McCann Tech, earn first WMass title since 2019

WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Easthampton hockey team used a big third period to take home a 4-3 victory over McCann Tech in the Western Mass. Class B hockey championship game on Thursday night.

Heading into the final 15 minutes of play with the game tied at 2-2, the Eagles had one minute, eight seconds left on the penalty kill. The team knew how important the first goal of the final period would be, locking in on the defensive end.

Shortly after completing the kill, Easthampton swapped its attention to the offensive end. Grayson Prevey-Catrambone skated the puck up the right side, finding Brayden Fennessy for a shot in tight. Wyatt Hunter crashed toward the left post, corralling the rebound and burying it past the goal line for the lead.

“Let’s get through the [penalty kill], and then we’re going to attack, because the next goal wins this game,” Eagles head coach Tim Pfau said to his team during the second intermission. “We have to buckle down on the [penalty kill], go out there and score.”

Easthampton’s third goal of the contest came with 13:09 left on the clock, with the team looking for some insurance. Just over 90 seconds later, the Eagles got exactly what they were looking for.

Jamie Parrish controlled the puck in the offensive end on the right half wall, throwing a hard pass out front, looking for a teammate. Jimmy Bresnahan was there to answer the call, receiving the pass and depositing it into the back of the net.

The goal gave Easthampton a 4-2 lead with 11:25 left in regulation, with the team’s new task just to wind the clock down and keep the Hornets out of the net through the final buzzer sounded.

McCann Tech shrank the deficit to just one goal with 2:17 left on the clock, pulling its goalie late to look for the equalizer. With 37.7 seconds to go, the Eagles suffered an interference penalty, forcing them to defend with just four skaters against six.

Having the ability to freely ice the puck the length of the rink helped keep the time ticking down, but the small numbers proved to be an issue late. The Hornets sent a quick pass across the face of Easthampton’s goaltender Tommy Bixby, who dove from post to post to get a piece of the puck with less than five seconds remaining.

The buzzer sounded, accompanied by a deep sigh of relief for the Eagles, who quickly jumped into celebration mode. They had won their first Western Mass. Championship since 2019.

“It feels awesome,” Pfau said. “It was something that we talked about day one. We said this was our goal… We know that we had a shot this year, and we put it up on the board day one. We want to win Western Mass., and they did it.”

The championship win helped to be a part of a great final season for Easthampton’s senior captains, with Bresnahan, Parker Christy and Ryan Curley helping lead their team to success on Thursday night.

Despite not all making it into the goal column, the trio each consistently made plays on both ends on the big stage, truly leading by example.

“They’ve been huge, as kids in the locker room, being leaders and having caring, strong voices,” Pfau said. “I can’t talk enough about all of them… they really took this team on this year and created such a great culture, constantly pushing each other day in and day out, and it’s helped the whole team.”

The Eagles set the tone of Thursday night’s battle by scoring the game’s first goal early in the first period. Christy found Max Scribner at the point for a deep wrister that made its way into the twine just over three minutes into the night.

In the second period, Easthampton was down a goal before Jamie Parrish received assists from Christy and Bresnahan and snapped a wrist shot that sent McCann Tech’s goaltender’s water bottle into the air with just over four minutes left in the frame.

After losing twice to the Hornets earlier this season, the Eagles came into Thursday night’s third opportunity with a great understanding of what walking away with a win would look like. Putting together a total team effort, Easthampton truly got the last laugh.

“We didn’t look at it as revenge; we looked at it as we know that we can beat them,” Pfau said. “We said [Thursday], we have to be disciplined, and we were. [McCann Tech’s] awesome. They’re very good. I think it could have gone our way three times this year as far as I’m concerned.”