Tournament roundup: Third period treats Tanners kindly in win over Danvers

All season long, the third period has been very nice to the Peabody hockey team.Entering its Division 2 North opening round game on Monday against Danvers, Peabody had outscored opponents 30-12 in the final 15 minutes.Facing the 14th seeded Falcons for the third time in a little under a month, the third seed Tanners were pushed hard for 30 minutes of a 1-1 tie. But true to form, they owned the third period as Matt Rodgers scored twice in the final six minutes to give Peabody a 3-1 win and a date with Masco on Friday (7) in the quarterfinals.”Once again we were a third period team,” Peabody coach Mark Leonard said. “Danvers played us really tough and it was a great game all the way.”The Tanners (16-2-3) were outshot 26-21 but actually scored first at 8:52 of the second when third liner Rob Houghton lit the lamp, assisted by Eric Costa and Mike Chiappini. Danvers (8-9-4) clawed back three minutes later when Kyle Larson notched his 21st goal of the season to deadlock the game after two periods.”It’s so hard to beat a team three times,” Leonard said. “And Danvers came out hard and there was a lot of emotion in the building.”The Tanners stayed with it and despite the area’s leading scorer – Andrew Bucci – being held pointless, they went ahead for good with 5:44 to go when Rodgers tipped home a Pereira pass to make it 2-1.Danvers pulled Mike Allain for an extra attacker in the final moments but Rodgers iced the game with 27 ticks remaining, assisted by Costa.”I think we just wore them down a bit in the third with our depth,” Leonard said.Winthrop 7, Fenwick 0At Stoneham Arena in Stoneham, the No. 2 seeds in Division 2 North picked up their third win of the season over the No. 15 Crusaders (10-12-0).Connor Brugman and Alex Hamilton each scored twice to pace the 17-1-2 Vikings. Chris LeBlanc, Joe Casey and Harry Benson also had goals while Pat Feeley pitched his ninth shutout of the season.Masconomet 4, Gloucester 1At Rockett Arena in Salem, the No. 6 seed Chieftains (14-5-1) scored twice in 23 seconds late in the third to put the game away. Masco led 1-0 after one on Chris Roach’s goal and 2-0 early in the second on the first of Pat Crosby’s two goals.Gloucester cut the lead to a goal when Ben Favazza found the mark at 5:40 of the second. It stayed 2-1 until Crosby picked a Gloucester defender’s pocket and made it 3-1 with 1:43 left. Phil Russo added an empty netter moments later.In other action, Tewksbury rolled to an 8-2 win over Beverly in a Division 2 North first round game.BOYS BASKETBALLSt. John’s 70, Waltham 55At Danvers, in D1 North first-round play, the No. 3 Eagles advanced against the No. 14 Hawks. Next up is No. 6 East Boston in the quarterfinals Friday at The Prep (7).Against Waltham, Pat Connaughton led St. John’s (19-2) with 27 points. He added 15 rebounds. Steve Haladyna scored 19 for the Eagles, who trailed 15-14 in the first quarter before posting a 35-22 halftime lead.”We had a big second quarter,” Eagles coach Sean Connolly said. “We kind of maintained the lead from there.”Connolly called East Boston “a very good team. We know we’re in for a battle.”Salem 61, Brighton 59At Salem, the Witches (16-7) had an 11 point lead entering the fourth quarter but needed a 3-pointer from Antonio Reyes with a minute remaining to escape in their Division 1 North opening round game.Raphy Medrano led Salem with 26 points while Reyes added 13.In girls basketball, Revere saw its stellar season come to an end as No. 12 Lowell upset the No. 5 Patriots, 57-36.