Saugus slips past Amesbury

NEWBURYPORT – With its state tournament hopes having been dashed with a loss to Dennis-Yarmouth on Sunday, one couldn’t have blamed the Saugus hockey team if it came to Graf Rink on Monday a little tired and disappointed.Playing its fourth game in as many days, the Sachems dug deep and showed the heart of a champion as they survived a 1:30 5-on-3 disadvantage late in the third period and got a pair of goals from Kurt Rodrigues to take a 3-1 win over Amesbury at the Newburyport Bank Ice Hockey Classic.The Sachems (7-10-2) will take on Shawsheen Tech, 4-1 winners over Pentucket on Monday, in the Gulazian Division final of the tournament on Wednesday night (7) at the Graf.”A lot of credit goes to these kids,” Saugus coach Chris Connors said. “They showed a lot of heart and determination (Monday). This was our fourth game in four days and it showed, but they found a way to get it done.”The Sachems had dominated most of the game but found themselves holding a tenuous 2-1 lead with just over six minutes left when a near brawl broke out at center ice after Amesbury goalie Evan King was accidentally run into by a Saugus player.By the time the ice chips had settled, all five skaters on the ice for each team were given misconduct penalties along with two extra minors to the Sachems that put them down two men for nearly three minutes.Amesbury, though, couldn’t get anything going as the Saugus penalty killers stepped up and shut down the Indians for the nearly 3:00 they had the power play.”They really dug deep there at the end to kill that 5-on-3,” Connors said. “It showed the heart these guys have.”Rodrigues paid off the penalty-killers’ work inside the final minute as a hustle play by Steve Groark got the puck in front for the sophomore to ice the game with an empty-netter.The teams didn’t waste a lot of time in exchanging pleasantries as penalties were the order of the day from the get-go.Despite six combined penalties and plenty of power play chances, the Sachems would score the lone goal of the first at 9:29 when Rodrigues picked up a Mike Kotowski pass and shoveled it past King.Early in the second, Groark upped the lead to 2-0 when he took a Ralph Paglucca drop pass and fired a bullet past King at :42. Amesbury, though, didn’t go away as Zach Pizzo cut the lead in half three minutes later.