Hockey Roundup: Sachems pull away from Gloucester

The Saugus High boys hockey team clamped down after a wide-open first period and sustained its Northeastern Conference title hopes with a 5-2 decision over Gloucester Saturday at Kasabuski Arena.Click here for a photo gallery.The Sachems (5-1-7; 8-1-7) take on current NEC North co-leader Beverly Wednesday night at home (7) in a game that will go a long way toward settling the championship race.”This was a pretty good win. We settled down after the first period and controlled the play with very strong second and third periods. Now we have a big one with Beverly,” said Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci, whose club handled the Panthers, 4-0, in late January.Senior captain Mike Kotowski and juniors Drew Oxley and Saige Tait all had a goal and an assist for the Sachems. Oxley’s goal, set up by Tait and senior Ralph Paglucca (two assists), proved to be the game-winner and gave Saugus a 3-1 lead at 10:50 of the third period.First-period goals by Kotowski and Kurt Rodrigues gave Saugus leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Tait tallied in the first minute of the second period while junior Tyler Stretton scored the final Saugus goal at 5:07 of the third. Junior defenseman Dan Groark contributed two assists and junior Nick Hegarty once again excelled in goal.Beverly 4, Peabody 0Senior Mitch Hamor’s hat trick powered the Panthers (9-2-1; 12-3-1) into a first-place tie with the slumping Tanners (8-3-3; 9-4-3). Beverly, seeking its first title since the 1989-90 season, controls its own fate with three remaining league games while Peabody has only one. The Tanners, 0-2-1 in their last three, have been outscored, 13-0, in their last two games.Hamor – who shifted to forward this year after playing defense his first three years – scored at the 5:50 mark of both the first and second periods, then added an empty-netter in the final minute. Andrew Irving had a goal and assist while Andrew Brown had two assists and Tony Brown notched the shutout with 18 saves.”We jumped out quickly and played a pretty solid all-around game. Mitch plays hard all the time, whether it’s practice or a game, and has had a very good year to this point,” said coach Bob Gilligan.Springfield Cathedral 4, St. John’s Prep 1At The Olympia in Springfield, the Eagles (9-5-1) did everything but win as they got stonewalled by Cathedral goalie Zac Rondeau’s 36-save performance, halting a four-game winning streak. Following a scoreless first period, during which Cathedral managed only two shots, the Panthers got goals from Mickey Foley at 18 seconds and Dante Christofori at 1:18 of the second period.Frank Crinella’s goal with 3:02 to play put it away for the Panthers. Prep freshman Shane Eiserman notched his 12th of the year during a 6-on-4 power play in the final two minutes, but SC added an empty-netter with two seconds to play.”The key was their goalie. We kept pressing him and we outplayed them. It was just one of those things. I wish they didn’t get the empty-netter because it gives the impression that it was worse than it really was,” said coach Kris Hanson.Lynn Jets take twoIt was a productive weekend for the Jets, who won at Revere on Saturday, 2-1, then upended Latin Academy, 4-2, Sunday morning at Matthews Arena to improve to 5-12-1 overall.Against Revere, all the scoring came in the first period. Drew Lauria staked the Patriots to a 1-0 lead at the 10-minute mark of the first period but Lynn’s Tony Uva tied it 30 seconds later, then John Finnigan scored the game-winner with 1:11 left in the period. Nick Comeau had 29 saves for the Jets.Against Latin Academy, the Jets again came from behind, scoring the game’s final three goals in the third period. Trailing, 2-1, Uva and Kyle Devin scored 54 seconds apart for a 3-2 lead with eight minutes to play. Jordan Morelli scored in the final minute and Comeau turned back 25 shots.”To have two come-from-behind wins in back-to-back games on the road says a lot about the kids’ effort and sticking with it. As a staff, we couldn’t be prouder of their effort,