HOLYOKE — On a Valentine’s Day matinee at Fitzpatrick Rink, the Easthampton hockey squad made sure to share the love in a 6-3 win against South Hadley.
The Eagles had six different goal scorers in Monday’s victory, and by the end of the night 10 different players made their way onto the score sheet. It was the Eagles’ third win in their last four games, and they’ve picked a good time to go on a roll as the postseason inches closer.
“I think we’ve had a lot of trouble gaining momentum throughout the season,” Easthampton’s Tyler Darling said. “I think that’s been our biggest problem. But now we’re getting rolling, it’s fun.”
It was the home team that struck first early in the contest, with South Hadley’s Joe Meon carrying the puck easily into the offensive zone and letting lose a laser from the left faceoff dot that beat Eagles goalie Paige Galpin. It was a big boost for the Tigers, who were playing massively shorthanded due to a few recent injuries. The team dressed just 13 skaters total on Monday, including goaltender Devin Carleton.
“We had to move a lot of things around, shuffle a lot of guys,” South Hadley head coach Kevin Stefanik said. “(There were) things guys should be accustomed to, but (they were in) situations they’re not fully used to because of the experience. But it was way better than I expected. The result doesn’t show but we were happy with the performance of the guys playing.”
The Tigers came out hard, but once the Eagles found their footing they were able to put some pressure on them in the offensive zone. That paid off on the team’s first goal of the night just over six minutes after South Hadley’s opening goal. Easthampton’s Brennan Stortz got away from his defender and found some open ice behind the Tigers’ net. He managed to wrap the puck around past the pads of Carleton at the 7:37 mark to make it 1-1.
Easthampton (6-10) kept the pressure on South Hadley to close the period, but Carleton made several good stops and the Tigers’ defense swept away any lose pucks to keep the score tied going into the first intermission.
The Eagles struck early in the second period to take their first lead of the game, a clean shot from Gabe Growhowski that he sniped past Carleton after cruising up the right wing at 12:37.
After Growhowski’s tally, both teams got power play opportunities. South Hadley’s Mikey Thompson went to the box with 11:24 remaining in the period, and Easthampton’s Drew Thompson took a penalty with 9:39 left for goalie interference. Neither power play unit was able to capitalize on their opportunities, and though there was a brief four-on-four chance in the middle of the two penalties, neither team found the back of the net.
Shortly after the special teams chances, South Hadley tied the game back up with a goal from Joe Cigal. Cigal was part of a three-on-two opportunity that developed for the Tigers, and Cigal managed to shove the puck past Galpin on a second-chance opportunity with 6:05 remaining in the period.
Liam Reynolds got the game’s third goal with just 1:51 left in the middle frame. Mirroring Stortz’s goal from the first, Reynolds set up at the side of the net and shoveled the puck past Carleton to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead heading into the final period.
The third period was a special teams showcase; South Hadley took another penalty and Easthampton found itself in the box three more times in the final frame.
Easthampton successfully killed off its first penalty in the opening three minutes, and shortly afterward secured a two-goal cushion thanks to a goal from Thompson on a blast from the left circle.
The Tigers had a chance to get back into the contest 44 seconds after that tally when Jonny Callahan went to the box for interference, but instead the Eagles scored a shorthanded goal on the Tigers, an unassisted top shelf tally from Darling that made it 5-2.
Down but not out, the Tigers put up a strong fight late. Meon picked up his second goal of the night with 2:58 left in the third, an incredible individual effort on the power play where he muscled between two defenders to single-handedly pull his team back into the game.
South Hadley (7-6-2) called a timeout with 2:36 remaining to draw up a play, and pulled Carleton with 2:18 remaining in an attempt to pull closer. But Ethan Marowitz scored an empty-net goal for Easthampton with 1:13 left to account for the 6-3 final.
It was an encouraging win for Easthampton head coach Tim Pfau, who said he’s starting to see his team gel together after a season with plenty of changes.
“I think we finally figured out who works well together,” Pfau said. “It’s becoming an old excuse, but with a year off and new kids coming in and kids leaving and a new coach and a new system of play, I think we’re finally finding that place. We’re hopeful.”
Easthampton is set to play at Ludlow on Wednesday before closing out the regular season against Amherst on Thursday night. South Hadley has regular season games left against Agawam (Wednesday) and Drury (Saturday).