Four-goal second period leads Peabody past Saugus

SAUGUS – The Saugus boys hockey team might have had its best effort of the season on Wednesday at Kasabuski Arena. Unfortunately for the Sachems, they ran into a Peabody team that brought its best effort, too.The Tanners showed why they were the preseason choice of many to win the Northeastern Conference, using a four-goal explosion in the second period to overcome a 1-0 Saugus lead and take a 4-1 win in front of a rowdy house.”That was a great effort against a good team,” Peabody coach Mark Leonard said. “This is a tough place to play in. It has its own mystique and it’s a lot of fun to play here. The kids should be proud to come out with a win.”For the Sachems, it was a case of not cashing in on several quality scoring chances in the first period and a half. But coach Chris Connors was still happy with a lot of things he saw.”That is the kind of effort we’re looking for as a team and coaches,” Connors said. “They came out and played hard right to the end. The ultimate goal was to hang with them and then hope we had some gas left at the end. We just had a couple of major breakdowns.”The Sachems (3-3-1) actually controlled the play for the early part of the game, nearly taking a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes, but Peabody goalie Derek Savage made a spectacular save on Joe Vecchione’s bid from the slot.”Derek really made some big saves at the start,” Leonard said. “He was tremendous and he’s only a sophomore.”Saugus went on the power play moments later but failed to convert. That’s when Peabody’s offense finally began to come around, sternly testing freshman goaltender Nick Hegarty.But the Sachem keeper was up to the challenge, stopping a pair of breakaway chances for the NEC’s leading goal-scorer, Elijah Cohen. At the other end, Vecchione was turned away by Savage on a breakaway of his own, keeping the game scoreless through one.”Nicky played a phenomenal game,” Connors said. “I really can’t say enough about how he’s played.”Despite having the better of the scoring chances, Peabody suddenly found itself behind early in the second period when another Saugus freshman, Saige Tait, took a Mike Kotowski rebound and snapped it over Savage’s shoulder.”We talked about not getting frustrated because we knew we should have been ahead after the first,” Leonard said. “And then we get behind. But to their credit, they kept their composure and came back.”Moments after Tait’s goal, Tom DiFraia was called for charging, giving Peabody’s potent power play a chance. A penalty to Vecchione on the ensuing kill resulted in a 38-second 2-man advantage for the Tanners.And just as the Vecchione penalty was set to expire, A.J. Parker found a Mike Broughton rebound at the side of the net and tapped it in to tie the game at 1-1.”You can’t give them opportunities like that,” Connors said. “And they cashed in on it.”Just over a minute later, Peabody finally hit on a breakaway as Cohen took Eric Muise’s home-run pass and beat Hegarty for his 11th goal of the year and a 2-1 lead.Peabody was now swarming relentlessly, finishing the period with 17 shots, and with 5:21 left in the period, a turnover resulted in a 2-on-1 for Matt Rodgers and Andrew Bucci, who chipped a neat pass to Rodgers for an easy goal that made it 3-1.The same duo then delivered a knockout blow to the Sachems’ chances in the final seconds of the period, as Bucci scored on a Rodgers rebound with 2.8 seconds left on the clock to make it 4-1 after two.”When they play like that, this team will take over most games,” Leonard said.Saugus had a chance to get back in the game just 32 seconds into the third when Parker received a 4:00 major and a game disqualification for a hit from behind on Vecchione. But the Tanners’ penalty-kill unit dug in and held Saugus to only three shots in erasing the long man advantage.”We did a good job in the third period defensively,” Leonard said. “We didn’t take a lot of chances and were solid.”The rest of the third featured a bevy of punishing body checks by both t