WEST SPRINGFIELD – Olympia Ice Arena is practically a second home to Belchertown goalie Donald Rogers. The now-freshman has been skating at the rink since he first put on a pair of skates – it was the place he learned to skate and play hockey. 

It made it that much more special when Rogers stopped 23 shots to earn his first shutout with the Orioles at Olympia in the Western Mass. Class B semifinal against Amherst on Wednesday night.

No. 4 Belchertown secured a 2-0 win over top-seeded Amherst to punch its ticket to the Class B final against No. 2 Ludlow, which bested No. 3 Easthampton earlier in the evening. The teams will meet on Saturday at 4 p.m. back at the Olympia.

“This is a special shutout for me because this is my home rink that I grew up playing in since I was three years old,” Rogers said. “It felt nice to get my first varsity hockey shutout (here).” 

Belchertown (11-7) came into the game as the No. 4 seed, but the Orioles are hitting their stride at the right time after enduring some mid-season struggles. Sickness swept through the team and they struggled for a while to find cohesion in practices, but everything’s been clicking for Belchertown lately. 

“This has kind of been building for us for a while,” Belchertown head coach Derek Chandonnet said. “You go back to the Longmeadow game, we slowly started turning the corner with our effort and everybody getting more engaged and our practices have been getting better.” 

For the Hurricanes, Wednesday’s game held more importance than just a Western Mass. semifinal game. Amherst (9-10-1) was one victory shy of a trip to the MIAA Division 3 state tournament berth via a .500 or better record. They needed the win to qualify.

Belchertown knew how Amherst was feeling after handing it the loss – the Orioles were in the same position last year when they dropped their Western Mass. semifinal to Greenfield, which knocked them out of contention for the state tournament. But despite the Hurricanes’ season wrapping up earlier than they’d hoped, the team has come a long way since it first hit the ice back in December. 

“That's one of the things we talked about is the growth we showed over the course of the season was unreal,” Amherst head coach Michael Rosseau said. “We're young, we're bringing back probably 98 percent of the kids. I don't think it will be a .500 team, I think we’ll be well above .500 next year.” 

Wednesday’s game started off fast for the Orioles, which scored midway through the opening period on its first power play chance of the evening. Brady Moreau picked up the puck at the top of the faceoff circle on the right side and fired a shot to the far side, where it bounced off the post and in past Amherst goalie Charlie May with 7:32 left in the period. 

After Moreau’s goal, it was chaos as both teams paraded to the penalty box through the majority of the first two periods. Eleven penalties in total were called between the two teams, with Belchertown going to the box seven times and Amherst getting whistled for four penalties. It was tough for either team to get going with the frequent starting and stopping, but both managed to get out of the second period unscathed with Belchertown still clinging to its 1-0 lead.

Amherst went into the third period with a short 15-second power play, but it was Belchertown that used that time to its advantage. Right off the opening faceoff in the third frame, Francis Henderson corralled the puck for the Orioles and sprinted into the offensive zone on a breakaway, burying the puck past May just seven seconds into the period to double Belchertown’s lead. 

The Hurricanes threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Orioles in an effort to tie the game up, but Rogers stood strong and Amherst couldn’t find the puck luck they needed. May finished the game with 20 saves in the loss. 

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