WOBURN — It was a matchup that had been brewing for five days.
Woburn and Braintree were originally scheduled to meet Jan. 25 for an opening-round match in the Brinn Division of the Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament. However, inclement weather pushed the game to a Thursday start, with the matchup coming less than 24 hours after a typical Wednesday matchup for both the Tanners and Wamps.
With fatigued rosters, it was about winning the mental game and Woburn seniors Braeden Blake and Luke Hughes knew the mission at hand. The forwards tallied two goals apiece to lead the Tanners to a 4-2 victory and secure a trip to the semifinals against Marshfield.
“This one kind of jumped up on us,” Hughes said. “But we had this in the back of our minds and we want to win this tournament, that’s what we are coming for.”
“It sucked that we had to wait until Thursday,” Blake said. “But we are happy that we got it done.”
Woburn (8-3-1) secured a 2-0 win over Stoneham Wednesday evening while Braintree (3-8-2) defeated Wellesley, 1-0. Tanners head coach Jim Duran said that the lack of rest between the games showed on the ice and also forced his team to dig deep.
“Any win is a good win; we will take any of them,” Duran said. “We played last night, they played last night, so it wasn’t very good hockey, it was a little bit sloppy. We will take anything we can…We just kind of held on, it’s what we have been doing all year.”
The Tanners got started with the scoring early, with Blake bursting to the net and blasting the puck into the top corner just four minutes into the first period. This momentum boost would be relatively short-lived, however, as Braintree pushed the offense, and Mike Ryan used a screen to beat Adam Gerry and tie the game.
That would be the extent of the scoring in the first period, but Woburn came into the middle frame with a lot of speed. This eventually led to an excellent passing play that saw Hughes feed Blake in the slot, and the senior buried his second goal of the game.
“We were just bearing down around the net,” Blake said. “We haven’t done it much this year, but we were able to get it done today.”
Five minutes later, Hughes got some space on a rush and scored a top-corner goal to give Woburn a two-goal lead.
“I was so happy for him,” Duran said of Hughes. “He’s been snake-bitten all year, and he stepped up big for us. He’s been a good leader.”
That score held until the midway point of the third period when Matt Psaros fired the puck past Gerry to cut the deficit to one. The Wamps continued to press, firing multiple pucks at the net, but the senior netminder remained in control.
Woburn took a penalty in the final minute but a clear attempt and a bad bounce caused the puck to bounce to Hughes, who tapped in the empty-netter to seal the win.
“Everyone was making plays out there,” Hughes said. “There weren’t any individual players, we all worked well together.”
Woburn will now host Marshfield on Sunday with a trip to the Brinn Division finals on the line. Braintree will face Franklin in the consolation round.
Duran said the tournament will give his team an excellent test before the postseason.
“You’re playing all of the good teams,” Duran said. “You’re in this tournament for a good tournament atmosphere. …That is why we got into the tournament, to get ready against a lot of experienced teams.”
