Burlington outlasts Chelmsford 7-6 in first round of Cahoon Tournament

In one of the most exciting games of the year Burlington bested Chelmsford 7-6 in a shootout to get the first round victory in the Ed Cahoon Memorial Hockey Tournament on Tuesday night. 

Burlington took the early lead when Captain Chris Irwin found the net on the first Burlington shot of the game just 1:04 into play.   Adam Crowley got the assist when he gave the senior forward a nice feed allowing him to put the puck in the net.  After the quick goal both teams settled into the game and Burlington took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. 

Burlington came out firing in the second period and scored two more goals in the first few minutes of the period to give the team a 3-0 lead.  The first came when Brian Hood scored from his knees, batting a puck over the goalies right shoulder after he was knocked down in front of the net.  Joe Berardi and Brett Romkey got helpers on the goal.  Just 30 seconds later they scored again when Captain Joey Centrella scored with Chris Theriault and Brien Diffley notching assists.

Chelmsford could have packed it in facing a 3-0 deficit early in the second period, but they battled back rattling off four straight second period goals.  Captain Kevin Driscoll got the scoring started at the 4:54 mark when he put in a rebound following a Tom Bishop shot.   They scored again at 6:34 when Drew Dawson put the puck in the net on the power play with Matt Powers and Bill Kamenides getting assists.  They tied the game up a little over a minute later when Cam Phillips was camped out in front of the net and got three shots at point blank range finally getting the last one past Burlington goalie Derek DeCastro.  They took the lead at 10:44 when David DeDonato scored on the penalty kill.  The goal came after great penalty killing by Bishop when he cleared the puck out of his own zone then chased it down and fed a streaking DeDonato who finished in front of the net. 

Burlington finally stopped the bleeding just 30 seconds later when Romkey followed up a Berardi shot by knocking the puck into an open net to tie the game 4-4.  Chelmsford followed that up about a minute later when Sean O’Shaughnessy took a shot from the point and it bounced off a Burlington player into the Burlington net to give Chelmsford a 5-4 lead.  It looked like Chelmsford would take that lead into the final period but Burlington scored with just 5 seconds remaining in the period when RJ Caruso took a shot from the point that found its way past Chelmsford goalie Brad Alber tying the game at 5-5. 

After a wild second period the teams settled down and really focused in on the defensive end in the third.  Chelmsford took a one goal lead at 11:02 when Tyler Evans intercepted a Burlington pass in there own end and had a clear path to the net beating DeCastro.  It looked as if they would win 6-5, but just as Irwin found the back of the net on the first shot of the game he did the same thing on the last shot of the game scoring with just 1 second remaining to tie the game.

Usually the game would end in a tie but since it was the Ed Cahoon tournament where a winner needed to be produced, the teams would settle things in a shootout.  Both goalies were up to the task early with both Alber and DeCastro each stopping the first three shots they faced.  Joey Centrella was fourth in the shootout lineup for Burlington and scored on a backhand giving them a 1-0 lead in the shootout.  Drew Dawson shot last for Chelmsford and needed a goal in order to keep the shootout going and did just that tying it at 1-1.  RJ Caruso was the final shooter for Burlington and beat Alber five hole to get the win for Burlington.

Burlington will now face Framingham in the championship game of the Ed Cahoon tournament on Thursday night at 8 p.m.