Tewksbury’s depth proves valuable as Redmen skate past Woburn

STONEHAM — All season long it’s been Tewksbury’s first line which got all the publicity. On Saturday at Stoneham Arena, however, it was the Redmen’s depth players who came through in the clutch.

Third-line forward Peter Civitarese scored his first career goal to tie things with Woburn before second-liner Jason Lavoie scored with 6:13 left to put Tewksbury ahead for good. First-liner Tyler Bourgea capped a four-point night with an empty net goal to seal a 6-4 win and a spot in the Division 2 final next Sunday at TD Garden.

“All year long the goal was to get back to the Garden and now we’re there,” Tewksbury coach Derek Doherty said. “We didn’t panic when we got down 4-3. The kids stayed with it.”

The high-flying Redmen (21-3-0) got all they could want and then some from the Tanners (15-6-1) as Woburn came from behind twice and took the lead early in the third period on Finn Murphy’s snipe from the right circle.

Just over four minutes later, Civitarese stunned everyone inside a jam packed rink, including his own coach, when he took a Jason Shreenan drop pass and put a shot over Logan Roderick’s glove for the equalizer.

“PJ is the hardest worker on this team and it was great to see him get that goal,” Doherty said.

A little over three minutes later, Tyler Barnes won a battle behind the net and fed a charging Lavoie in the slot for an easy tap-in and a 5-4 lead.

Woburn couldn’t come up with an answer this time as Tewksbury kept them pinned in their own end for much of the next four plus-minutes.

They did get Roderick off for an extra skater with just under a minute to go but Bourgea stole the puck at the Tewksbury line and buried a shot from the neutral zone with :33.2 left to allow all the red and white clad fans to exhale.

“This was a great team effort,” Doherty said. “Woburn is such a great team and we knew they were going to be a challenge for us.”

The team’s traded goals in a 2-2 first period before Jeremy Insogna gave Tewksbury a 3-2 lead in the second. Woburn’s Dillon Scalesse tied the game later in the period to set up the frantic third frame.

Niko Tortola of Woburn scores a goal against Tewksbury in state tournament play Saturday. Tewksbury earned a 6-4 victory. (James Thomas photo)

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