ORLEANS — The Nauset Warriors made it look easy on Saturday, cruising to their second playoff hockey win, 9-0, over the Danvers Falcons and advancing to the Mass. Div. 3 Elite 8. It was the 16th consecutive win for the top-ranked boys team, whose only stumble this season was a 2-2 tie with Milton on Jan. 25.
Senior captain Logan Poulin scored the first goal of the Danvers game on a pass from defender Andrew Bohannon about a minute into the first period, knocking the puck past Falcons goalie Cody Standring. Poulin went on to score two more times against the 16th-seeded Falcons, securing his usual hat trick. His other goals were in the second and third periods on assists from junior defender Logan Miller and senior defender Jack Martin.
But it was senior forward Colin Ward who stole the show on Saturday night, scoring his own hat trick in the first period. The first goal came on a breakaway from one end of the rink to the other, Ward hopping gracefully past the Danvers defenders before scoring unassisted. The next came only minutes later, on passes from junior forward Jake Eldredge and defender Logan Miller following a gleeful sequence of casual passes between the two; the third followed shortly after on a pass from junior defender Oscar Escher.
“I was pretty happy with those goals,” Ward said. “The whole team was working hard — for the breakaway, I just found some ice and took the net.”
Eldredge also went home with a hat trick on Saturday, scoring all three goals on assists from Poulin, with extra assistance from junior forward Brody Bassett in the first period.
Ward said that his team is most comfortable in the offensive zone — that’s where there’s no threat of getting scored against, so he feels more confident. “That said, we’re ready for anything,” he said.
On Thursday, March 6, Nauset will have its long-awaited rematch with the Marblehead Magicians, the team that defeated the Warriors 1-0 in last year’s finals at Boston’s TD Garden. The game will be at Bourne’s Gallo Arena, but for all the energy crackling through the locker room it might as well be at Madison Square Garden: 16 of the 23 members of this year’s team played in last year’s championship game, including Poulin, who told the Independent last year he had “no doubt” they’d be back in 2025 to take the crown.
The Warriors’ path to their rematch with Marblehead has not been as drama-free as many in the partisan crowd at Charles Moore Arena anticipated. In the first-round playoff game on Feb. 26, Nauset pulled away to a workmanlike 5-0 win over the 33rd-seeded Middleborough Sachems, but not before the teams battled through a surprisingly scoreless 15 minutes.
The first period deadlock was attributable mainly to the stellar work of the Sachems’ goalie, Connor Mitchell. The Warriors spent most of the time in the attack zone, but their shots that were not wide of the net were handled adroitly by Mitchell who, despite being a senior, was playing in only his first year at the high school level.
Nauset finally broke through early in the second period on a goal by the steady Colin Ward off a Logan Miller assist. It remained a tense one-goal game with Nauset continuing to dictate the action but failing to find the back of the net. Poulin put the crowd somewhat at ease by scoring with just under five minutes remaining in the stanza. That goal was a thing of beauty, as he outskated the defense to pull in his own rebound and ripped a shot past Mitchell to make it 2-0 going into the third.
That goal was the first of what became a rare natural hat trick for Poulin. Over 11 minutes, spanning the end of the second period and the start of the third, his three consecutive tallies gave the Warriors a 4-0 lead and ended whatever suspense there may have been.
Junior defenseman Max Lanzetta closed out the scoring with a power-play goal. Junior Jake Eldredge had three assists, while Ward added an assist to go along with his goal.
Goalie Zach Coelho was his usual steady self, gloving or turning aside the few shots his defensive unit allowed, while registering Nauset’s 10th shutout of the season.
Whether Coelho can maintain that steadiness against his next opponents could dictate whether Nauset finally takes home the trophy this year. Last year he was the one who let in the goal that won Marblehead the title.
But that necessary playoff mentality, if somewhat elusive last Wednesday, was on full display on Saturday. Coach Connor Brickley said it’s the friendly competition between his star players — including but not limited to the three who took hat tricks — that drives them to do better every game. Obviously, points aren’t everything — but, he said, “it’s nice to see players like Colin getting rewarded for their hard work. It’s great competition within our lineup to establish who’s going to be the big guy every single night,” he added. “It’s great for the team.”
