Hockey: Matt Garvin’s hat trick lifts Greenfield past Amherst 7-1

By RYAN AMES

Staff Writer

Published: 12-17-2024 11:19 PM

AMHERST – Four points from Matt Garvin pushed the Greenfield boys hockey team past Amherst Regional, 7-1, in an independent contest Tuesday night at Orr Rink.

Garvin recorded a hat trick and added an assist as the Green Wave cruised to their second win of the 2024-25 season.

“He played very well tonight,” Greenfield coach Adam Bouchard said of Garvin. “He definitely came in knowing that this would be the last time that he as a senior gets to play Amherst. So I know that the seniors all came in with that in mind and having Garvin step in — it was his second four-point game in a row — he’s playing great hockey right now.”

Shawn Beckwith (two goals), Brady Poreda (goal, assist) and Shawn Baumann (two assists) all finished with multi-point nights for Greenfield, while goalie Cooper Smith surrendered just one goal for the visitors.

“For many, many years with the Green Wave program here, we have something that we like to say, no puck Mondays. On Mondays, all we do is we skate and we do that for the reason to be able to skate 45 minutes in the game,” Bouchard said. “Having three lines that we can play really helps with that as well. So being able to keep the pressure on in the offensive zone and tire out the Amherst team was kind of the game plan coming in and I think that’s what accumulated as the game progressed.”

Ben Remensnyder tallied the Hurricanes’ lone goal, a power play strike early on the second period, in their season-opening loss.

“We’re running two lines, two and a half lines and [Greenfield runs] three and four [lines] and that’s exactly how you wear teams down, especially when you’re both running a trap,” Amherst head coach Mike Rousseau said. “Coach Bouchard had a great game plan.

“[We tried to] weather the storm, we were 0-0 after the first period, fatigue kicked in,” Rousseau added.

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Greenfield got on the board first off a Garvin rebound goal at 3:25 of the second period. It was the first of multiple Green Wave tallies right around Amherst goalie Spencer McDonald.

“We love those dirty goals, for sure,” Bouchard said. “Give it to [McDonald], 49 shots on net so 42 saves, we knew we had to pepper him, he’s a very good goaltender.”

Remensnyder’s equalizer less than three minutes later made it a 1-1 game, but the Green Wave proceeded to score six in a row, including a four-goal outburst in the third period.

Greenfield (2-0) will look to stay undefeated when it visits Longmeadow on Thursday. Amherst hosts Chicopee next on Thursday.