Swampscott boys hockey earns first tourney trip since 1997

SALEM – For the first time in 11 seasons, the Swampscott hockey team is going to have a meaningful game to play come March.On Saturday at Rockett Arena, the Big Blue locked up a state tournament berth for the first time since the 1997 season with a dramatic 4-3 win over Lynn that wasn’t clinched until Conor Barton’s spectacular right-pad save on Alex Bannikov’s bid to tie the game with two seconds left.”This was a heart-stopper,” Swampscott coach Gino Faia said. “We battled to the end and got the job done that we wanted to do. I am so happy for these guys.”For five players in particular on the Swampscott roster – Danny Rakoc, Keith Morgan, Trevor Legere, Alex DiDonato and Brendon Hambleton – it was the finish of a four-year quest to bring the Big Blue’s program back to respectability.”I am proud of the seniors and am so happy for them,” Faia said. “They’ve worked very hard and have taken their lumps. They deserve this.”Rakoc, Morgan and DiDonato proved to be a big reason for Swampscott’s getting the job done on Saturday against the plucky Jets.Morgan assisted on three of four goals, moving him within eight points of 100 for his career, while Rakoc and DiDonato each had a goal.”We have a good group here. They’re focused, hungry and ready to make some noise in the tournament,” Faia said.For the Jets, who fell to 6-7-2 and need six points in their final five games to make the states, it was a bounce-back effort from a lackluster performance in a 2-1 loss to Salem on Wednesday.”They came together as a unit and the more the game went on, the more they felt comfortable,” Lynn coach Al Melanson said. “We can take a lot out of this game because I think we righted the ship from Wednesday.”Any thought that this game was going to be like the teams’ first meeting in January, a 6-0 Big Blue win, got erased just 75 seconds in when Bucky Surrette intercepted a pass in front of the Swampscott goal and beat Barton for a 1-0 lead.That goal served as a wake-up call for the Swampscott offense, which outshot Lynn 34-15 in the contest, as the Big Blue attacked goaltender Craig MacDaniel relentlessly.The pressure resulted in a couple of Jets mistakes, the second of which led to a tripping penalty that thwarted a Hambleton breakaway with 6:10 left in the first.That’s where Rakoc, Morgan and Hambleton combined for a pretty power-play goal.Hambleton lugged the puck up the right wing boards before being met at the Jets’ blue line by the defense. He tapped the puck to Morgan, who skated around the net and fed Rakoc in the right circle for a wrist shot over MacDaniel’s shoulder to tie the game.The Big Blue (9-4-3, 6-3-3 NEC) then took the lead with 24 seconds left in the first as Morgan and A.J. Zarinsky worked a perfect give-and-go play with Zarinsky scoring his fourth goal of the season from the slot.The Jets answered back early in the second as Bannikov picked up a loose puck in the right circle and snapped a quick shot past Barton to knot the game at 2-2.Two minutes later, however, Swampscott retook the lead as DiDonato deflected Ben Wollerscheid’s wrist shot from the right point past MacDaniel at 4:54. The Big Blue got an insurance goal just under four minutes later when John Pelletier’s drive from the point found its way through a maze of players for a 4-2 lead through two.Surrette got the Jets back within a goal at 3:21 of the third when he scored his second of the game on a 2-on-1 with Bannikov. But the Big Blue wouldn’t let the Jets get the equalizer.Billy MacDaniel and Bannikov both had glorious chances in the final minute of regulation with an extra attacker on for Lynn, but Barton turned both of them aside to start the long-awaited celebration for Swampscott.”Conor made some big saves in the end,” Faia said.