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Concord-Carlisle ends Haverhill's playoff run

Monday, March, 09 By Jeff Hamrick

LOWELL — The fight song might have been sung on last night's final bus ride, but Haverhill's hockey season ended on a sour note at the Tsongas Center.

Unable to build on the one-goal advantage they took into the second period, the Hillies' stunning run through Division 2 North sectional ended in a 4-1 loss to ninth-seeded Concord Carlisle.

Although the 11th-seeded Hillies (11-8-5) failed to advance to the state final, the disappointing loss couldn't dampen the glow on Haverhill's special late-season push which featured victories in seven of its previous nine.

The last couple weeks probably have been the best weeks of my life," said senior defenseman Robb Budds, who scored Haverhill's lone goal. "I didn't really expect ever to go this far. Our goal here was just to make it farther than we did last year (below the .500 mark with a first-round loss).

"To be here this far is really special. I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else, than with these teammates. It's the best team I've ever played on."

The Hillies five-game winning streak began with back-to-back 5-1 victories to close out the regular season just to earn a berth. They then went through sixth-seeded Lincoln-Sudbury (4-3), third-seeded Winthrop (3-2) and second-seeded North Reading (2-1) to reach the title match. In the playoffs, six different players recorded at least one goal and another five had at least one assist.

"We're obviously disappointed but these kids have no idea what they've accomplished," third-year coach Joe Roberts said. "I played (at Haverhill) for four years, my assistant (coaches) played four years and we never saw a playoff game. It's a win just to get this far. It's a huge accomplishment."

Last night, the Hillies opened strong against the Patriots as Budd powered home a slapper from the point off assists from Jordan Perez and Eric Michitson with 8:20 left in the first.

"I wanted to score two — that was my goal," Budds said of his goal that beat CC netminder Leon Paladjian on the glove side. "But I couldn't get another one in. We just kind of lost our game plan. We have so much more speed than them. We wanted to take it wide and pound the net, but we didn't do that."

Concord-Carlisle (14-6-4) was the only squad to find the back of the net the remainder of the game. The Patriots scored twice in the second — the first came on a rebound of the fourth shot Haverhill goalie Mike Gleason saw in a matter of seconds. The Patriots secured matters with two more in the third.

"All the boys played their hearts out," said Gleason, who stopped 19 shots on the night and 138 in the four sectional matches. "But we got a couple of unlucky bounces. But we've learned you just can't give up on ourselves as a team. In reality, we aren't the best team to come out of Haverhill High. But we've gone the furthest because we're so tight and care about each other."

But, hopefully those final two periods won't be what this shocking group of Hillies accomplished with their incredible run.

"Sometimes this is the kind of success that gets guys to stay (in the program)," Roberts said. "These kids have helped our program, and it's only going to make us stronger."