RallyNorth.net

Wed, Feb 13, 2008 07:30 PM @ Beverly

Team	1	2	3	Final
Danvers	1	1	3	5
Beverly	0	1	0	1

Danvers flexes its muscle, puts Beverly on tourney brink

Thursday, February, 14 By Phil Stacey
Sports editor

If this one game represented a fork in the road, you can plainly see how the Danvers and Beverly High hockey teams took very different paths.

Similar to the way their seasons have played out. Playing some of its best hockey of the year, Danvers continued on its late-season roll by scoring three times in the final period and owning all areas of the ice. Paced by junior Troy Thibodeau's hat trick, the Falcons turned a close game into a blowout by hammering the Panthers, 5-1, at the Rockett Arena.

The team that should have been playing a more desperate brand of hockey, Beverly, failed to do a lot of the little things that had served them well earlier in the season. As a result, the Panthers (7-9-4) find their backs up against the net, needing to win both of their remaining two games | Saturday at Medford, then next Thursday vs. Bishop Fenwick at Salem State | to squeak into the Division 2 North playoffs.

Two teams, two very different roads they've taken. "I'm very happy with this one," said Danvers head coach Kevin Brown, whose team takes an 10-5-3 mark (8-4-2) into Saturday's final home game against Northeastern Conference champion Gloucester (8 p.m.).

"I told our guys there's a time of year when a team jells, and I think that's happening for us. It's happening on the ice, in the locker room, outside of the rink." Thibodeau, who has been on a scoring tear of late and leads the Falcons with 18 goals, tallied twice in the third period, once on the power play.

"It seems like every time I take a shot lately, it's going in," Thibodeau said humbly.

He and captain Jake Korthas, the left point man on the man-up unit, worked the puck back and forth deftly to set up the perfect shot, leading to a pair of power play goals (with Jay Sabino scoring the other).

"We'll work on the power play in live time for 1:30 during practices, then take 5-10 minutes and do something else, then go back to another minute-and-a-half power play," said Thibodeau. "It's really starting to click for us."

In addition to Thibodeau's three goals, fellow first-liners Kyle Larson (2 assists) and captain Steve Kontos (3 assists) also had strong showings. "Kyle, Steve and I are really playing well together right now," said Thibodeau.

The same can not be said for Beverly, not at all. Its scoring touch has all but abandoned them; in their eight losses since the beginning of January, they have scored a grand total of nine goals.

Not only that, but the Panthers have seemingly stopped doing things that have become a trademark of theirs over the years: blocking shots, getting back quickly in their own zone, and making it tough for opponents to play against them.

Only defenseman Alex Baker (who had another strong game) could get Beverly on the scoreboard, taking a drop pass from Jack Liacos at the left point and unleashing a bomb into the top corner of the Falcon net.

That goal, Baker's team-leading eighth of the year, came in the final minute of the second period, making it 2-1. Beverly, however, couldn't sustain that momentum in the final stanza.

"Those little things we didn't do turned into big things," Beverly coach Bob Gilligan said. "We didn't sacrifice ourselves to get the job done.

"We don't have the go-to guy up front to lead us (offensively) in years past since Jack Leathersich went down, so it's essential we do those other things that help win games. Tonight, we didn't ... and you saw the end result."

Korthas, whose two assists gave him 50 career points on the Danvers blue line, said his team's persistence on offense paid off handsomely.

"The coaches are always telling us, 'Get the puck and shoot it. Don't waste time with it'," said Korthas. "With the talent we have and the way we've been moving the puck, good things are happening when we do shoot it."

Junior Stephen Deroche added his second goal of the winter for Danvers, a pretty backhand that beat Beverly sophomore keeper C.J. Cacciatore (25 saves).

At the other end of the ice, Danvers senior captain Pat O'Kane | if he's not voted the NEC's All-League keeper, there should be a criminal investigation | was his usual fine self, stopping 13 of 14 shots before giving way to sophomore Mike Allain (3 saves) over the final 2:39 of play.