This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Dec. 21, 2002.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

NEW BEDFORD -- New Bedford and Bishop Stang will ring in the holiday season in the New Bedford High School Christmas Tournament.

Both hockey teams finished on the winning ends of physical games yesterday at Hetland Rink. They will meet in the tournament final tonight.

New Bedford beat Voc-Tech 6-3, while Stang defeated Dartmouth 5-2.

After falling behind 3-0 in the first period, Voc-Tech worked itself back into its game with the Whalers (1-1) with two quick power-play goals in the second period from Russell Tavares and Roland Chartier. The scores breathed new life into both the Bears and the game.

"Well in the first period, we capitalized on our power-play chances," said New Bedford head coach John Sullivan. "The kids came out and played tough, and for the first 15 minutes did everything that I wanted them to do.

"In the second period we came out a little flat, and all of a sudden a couple of penalties later and they capitalized on the power play and we let them right back into the game."

New Bedford answered back to make the score 4-2 later in the period on a goal from Matt Demetrio, but Voc-Tech (0-2) pulled within one again when Chartier netted his second goal of the game after swiveling the puck under the pads of New Bedford's Ryan Santos.

"They picked it up they played hard," said Voc-Tech head coach Ed Silva, "but penalties cost us. The kids worked hard at it and I give them a lot of credit."

About 40 seconds later, though, New Bedford regained a two-goal advantage when Jared Ferreira drove the puck wide of the net and John Beauregard pounced on it and drove it in with 35.7 seconds left.

"That was the big goal," said Sullivan. "I told the guys that we have to drive the puck wide and use our speed to capitalize on rebounds in front of the net."

Mike Winterson scored his second goal of the game with 5:33 left in the third for New Bedford.

The physical nature of the game, however, would carry over through the rest of the game, including after the last whistle had been blown. Just as the game ended on a Santos glove save, a brief shoving match ensued.

The Bishop Stang-Dartmouth matchup was also very physical but it turned into a goaltending display, with the Spartans coming out on top.

Stang (1-0) jumped out to an early two-goal lead in the first period, with Josh Anusewitz and Casey Allen scoring, but Dartmouth's Collin Carmo brought the Indians back within one.

After a scoreless second period, Stang picked up a 4-1 lead with goals from Jacob Johnson and Steve Lopes, and after Dartmouth's Terrance Andrade brought the Indians to within two, Matt Griffin put the game out of reach for the Spartans.

"I thought we started out slow in the first period," said Stang head coach Tim Drew. "But then I felt the next two periods we were able to play much better as a team.

"I felt we were bunching up too much (in the offensive zone), but this was still our first game, so it'll come."

"We played very hard," said Dartmouth head coach Mike Cappello. "I'm very proud of the effort we put forth in this game. That was a skilled team we played, and they eventually wore us down and we started making mistakes in our own zone."

Goalie Luke Velho kept the Spartans from doing further damage in the game making, several timely saves throughout along with a few spectacular ones.

"He made the routine saves and he made the big saves," said Cappello "and he had a good game for us as usual. We always count on Velho. He's the backbone of our team."

The Indians (0-1-1) will take on the Bears at 4 p.m. today at Hetland Rink, then at 6 p.m. Stang will play New Bedford for the Michael J. Silva Memorial Trophy, which New Bedford has won the last two years.

"If we want to win the game, we're going to have to outshoot them," said New Bedford's Sullivan. "They have a lot of good forwards that can move the puck, and they've got a few defensemen that can play too.

"We've got to finish it off tomorrow. That was our goal going into the tournament, and we have to prove to (Stang) that we're the better team."

This story appeared on Page B1 of The Standard-Times on Dec. 21, 2002.