Lynn Jets soar in opening win over Swampscott

SALEM – The schedule-makers didn’t do the Lynn Jets any favors as they had the task of playing two-time defending Northeastern Conference/South champion Swampscott in the season opener on Wednesday at Salem State’s Rockett Arena.Led by a 14-save shutout from Nick Comeau and a two-goal night by John Finnigan, the Jets snapped a four-game losing skid to the Big Blue with a 3-0 whitewashing.Click here for a photo gallery.”This is a huge win for us,” Lynn coach Joe Conlon said. “It’s no secret in our locker room that they’ve had our number the last couple of years, so to come here and get a win is big.”The Jets had to survive six Swampscott power play chances, including a 1:17 5-on-3 situation late in the third period, but used a stingy defense to kill every opportunity.”We just couldn’t put the puck in the net,” Swampscott coach Gino Faia said. “Obviously the power play wasn’t clicking (Wednesday) and that’s something we thought would be a plus.”It was a stalemate for most of the first period until the final seconds when the Jets got a momentum-boosting goal.Eric Bransfield worked the puck out from behind the Lynn net to Jeff Porter on the right wing boards. Porter sent a long pass to a streaking Finnigan, who took the puck and roofed a backhander past Tyler Gallagher with 4.6 seconds left.”That was a great shot by John,” Conlon said. “We always talk about the importance of the last minute of the period and the first minute of the next and that was huge for us.”Swampscott had the better of the play for most of the second period despite being outshot 8-7 but Comeau came up huge time and again. No save was bigger than his glove stop on Gino Cresta’s bomb late in the middle frame.”Nicky played great (Wednesday). We have a lot of trust in our goalies and he showed it again,” Conlon said.Lynn started the third period on the power play but saw that go by the boards when Bucky Surette was called for cross-checking at the 25-second mark.Moments after the Swampscott power play expired, Finnigan was on the spot when Kyle Devin poked the puck out of a scrum to Gallagher’s right for a slam dunk that made it 2-0.The rest of the night would be spent on pins and needles for the Jets as Swampscott got three more power play chances in the final six minutes of the game.But a stingy defense and Comeau’s netminding held down the fort. Devin salted the game away with 15 seconds left with an empty-net tally.