Amherst Regional hockey coach Mike Rousseau knows what the Hurricanes have to do to be successful in the postseason.
“This tournament is a game of will,” Rousseau said. “Whoever is going to put forth the big effort, do the little things, those are going to be winners.”
The Hurricanes (16-4-0) have done that through much of the regular season, despite being a young team. Amherst has only three seniors and four juniors.
“Ninety percent of these kids were part of a team that missed the playoffs by one point” last year, Rousseau said. “As far as experience-wise, the idea of having pressure, I don’t think that’s going to hinder them too much.”
The Hurricanes are the top seed in the Western Massachusetts Division 3A Tournament. Seeds were announced Saturday morning at Amelia Park Rink in Westfield.
“This group is a lot older than their years,” Rousseau said. “They play a mature hockey game which is a pleasant surprise.”
Amherst (16-4-0) has shown the ability to skate with anyone. The four losses came to West Springfield, 4-3, Minnechaug, 10-2, Chicopee Comp, 5-3, and South Hadley, 4-2.
The Hurricanes learned a lot from each loss.
“Excluding the Minnechaug game because that’s an outlier, the other three we did not play 45 minutes,” Rousseau said. “We came out slow, we thought putting on an Amherst jersey was enough and when you come out with that attitude that’s not enough. We weren’t ready and that starts with me.”
Amherst earned a bye to the semifinal round. Defending champion and No. 5 seed Easthampton (10-7-3) will face No. 4 South Hadley (13-5-2), Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. All tournament games are being held at the Olympia Ice Rink in West Springfield.
South Hadley beat Easthampton 5-4 on Feb. 4. Amherst beat Easthampton twice and split with the Tigers.
Greenfield and Belchertown, the Wright Division co-champions, are on the same side of the bracket.
No. 2 Greenfield (16-2-2) will face No. 7 Drury (7-6-6), Tuesday at 6 p.m. No. 3 Belchertown (12-3-3) will face No. 6 Chicopee (9-8-3) at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Belchertown beat the Pacers, 8-2, in its regular-season finale on Friday. Greenfield tied (2-2) and beat Drury (2-1).
Amherst is 8-1-0 against the entire Division 3A field.
“Every team that goes into this is 0-0,” Rousseau said. “What’s going to count at the end of the first round is who has a notch in the win column. We have to play our game and control what we can control and that’s our effort.”
The Hurricanes were the No. 1 seed when they won the championship in 2016.
Longmeadow (11-2-0) earned the No. 7 seed and will host No. 26 Brookline (11-9-2) in the state-wide Division 2 tournament. A date, time and place have yet to be determined.
Northampton senior Brigitte Goeler-Slough is the leading scorer with 18 goals and eight assists for the Lancers, which is a cooperative team with players from across the Pioneer Valley.
If Longmeadow wins, it would play the winner between No. 10 Melrose (14-4-2) and No. 23 Masconomet (11-7-2).