Bucci notches 100th career point as Peabody grounds Lynn Jets

LYNN – For the third time in a little over a year, the Peabody hockey program welcomed a player into the 100-career-point club on Saturday at Connery Rink.Senior Andrew Bucci joined the ranks of the Tanner elite as his two goals gave him 101 career points and boosted Peabody to a 5-1 win over the Lynn Jets.Click here for a photo gallery.”It couldn’t happen to a better person,” Peabody coach Mark Leonard said about Bucci’s milestone. “He is a great player and it’s nice to see him finally get to join the guys he skated with last year.”Bucci is the second Tanner to go over the century mark this season, joining linemate Matt Rodgers. Bucci’s big night helped him improve his North Shore-leading point total to 28 this season with his two goals.The Tanners (9-2-0, 7-0-0 NEC) dominated the game most of the way, winning by four goals despite going an astounding 0-for-10 on the power play Saturday.”Our power play was definitely not our strong point (Saturday),” joked Leonard. “But playing with a backup goaltender (Joe Powers) and without our best defenseman and a starting forward, this was one of our most solid wins of the year.”The Jets (9-5-0, 4-4-0) hung tough for a while but Peabody took advantage of a couple defensive breakdowns in the second period to put four goals on the board and assume control of the contest.”When you make a mistake against them, you can pretty much put it on the scoreboard,” Lynn coach Joe Conlon said. “And that’s a credit to them. They move the puck and skate hard and play with their heads up. They have a whole bunch of guys over there that can score goals.”Things started well for the Jets as Terry Finnegan one-timed a centering pass from older brother John past Powers to give Lynn a 1-0 lead just 1:43 in. Bucci, however, took care of his milestone 50 seconds later as he took a Derrik Pereira pass and tucked a shot past Craig MacDaniel.The rest of the period would become a showcase for the Jets penalty killers as Lynn killed off a lengthy 2-man advantage and four other penalties to keep the game tied at 1-1 after the first.”We missed so many chances,” Leonard said. “And that’s been a problem for us lately.”After failing on its seventh power play of the game early in the second, Peabody took the lead for good at 4:33 when Mike Chiappini picked off a clearing attempt and slid the puck to Bucci for a one-timer under the crossbar.Four minutes later, Steve Hatchouel pushed the lead to 3-1 when his slap shot beat a screened MacDaniel. Less than two minutes after that, Rob Houghton took a Chiappini drop pass and one-timed a laser over MacDaniel’s shoulder from the top of the right circle to make it 4-1.After killing a Lynn power play late in the period, the Tanners completed a 13-shot assault with Connor Purcell’s goal, assisted by Pereira and Rodgers, with nine seconds remaining.”Lynn was playing well but we were finally able to break through a bit in the second,” Leonard said.