TEWKSBURY – There’s been a bitter taste in the Tewksbury boys hockey team’s mouth since MVC/Dual County League 2 foe Concord-Carlisle handed the Redmen their first loss of the season earlier this month.

Wednesday night, though, they returned the favor.

In a premier matchup between the MIAA power rankings’ top two Div. 2 teams, No. 13 Tewksbury (11-1) used five goals from its top line and a shutdown defensive effort to roll past the No. 12 Patriots (14-1), 6-1.

Matthew Cooke and Jeremy Insogna led the scoring with two goals apiece, but each of its top three lines gave Concord-Carlisle trouble despite a strong effort from its goaltender, Sam Griswold (32 saves). Freshman Jake Cunha stood out from the Redmen’s blue line, helping Tewksbury limit the potent Patriots attack to just a power-play goal.

“They weren’t going to let them beat us tonight,” said Tewksbury head coach Derek Doherty. “It’s a tribute to the kids, they got focused. … It’s got to be them, they’ve got to have a little heart, they’ve got to have the emotion to go out there and play hard. I think tonight, they played great from start to finish.”

The hunger disparity was evident throughout the entire first period, as the Redmen forecheck delivered a bevy of physical plays while keeping the puck in Concord-Carlisle’s zone. Griswold played well, but midway through the frame, Tyler Bourgea banged in Jason Lavoie’s feed from the right side to build a tone-setting 1-0 lead.

“Just pedal to the metal, you know?” Bourgea said. “We just kept going, we knew we couldn’t beat them with one, so we had to beat them with multiple.”

Tewksbury headed to the box early in the second, and Concord-Carlisle made it pay for it with freshman Joe Grasso scoring the neutralizer just 34 seconds into the power play. The Patriots started out the frame much better than it did the first, but it didn’t take the Redmen long to get back in a groove.

Insogna tipped in the first of his two goals on a shot from the point from Anthony DiFranco to retake the lead with 4:58 to go in the second. Cooke then took his turn on a 2-on-0 pass from Insogna less than two minutes later.

Once Cooke intercepted a pass at his blue line to set up a breakaway goal for a 4-1 lead in the third, the Patriots’ wheels came off. Insogna buried his second goal only 13 seconds later and Kevin Andriolo made it 6-1 just 25 seconds after that.

Combining for four goals is nothing new for Insogna and Cooke, who expect big contributions from themselves.

“We’re both leaders on the team, we know our team’s relying on us,” Cooke said. “We’re just out there working our hardest, seeing what we can do for the team. We happened to each come out here and score two goals, so that was nice.”

“They’ve got some good support with them on their lines,” Doherty added. “They’re fun to watch, they’re very skilled players. They play hard all the time, they don’t let up.”

Beating the MIAA power rankings’ top-ranked team and last unbeaten group in Div. 2 doesn’t change Tewksbury’s perspective on how the rest of the season will play out – it knows all too well how hard teams play to get past them.

But it doesn’t make it any less sweet, nor notable, how effectively the Redmen shut Concord-Carlisle down in response to their only loss of the year.

“(The loss) kind of woke us up, told us, ‘OK, we’ve got to come to play every game,’ ” Insogna said. “Ever since we won that state championship, there’s been a target on our backs. … We came ready to play today, we played the game we wanted to play.”

Concord-Carlisle’s Will Steffens, left, goes into the corner with Tewksbury’s Tyler Barnes on Wednesday night. (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)