Saugus icemen derail Beverly, throw league race into chaos

SAUGUS – The craziness that has been this season in the Northeastern Conference in hockey kept right on going Wednesday at Kasabuski Arena.Beverly came into the night fully in control of its own fate in the NEC North but by the time a penalty filled game had ended, Saugus had taken a 4-1 win and thrown the race into even more chaos.Click here for more photos of last night’s game”We knew coming in that we still had a chance at the league,” Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci said. “And we talked a little bit about that with the kids before the game. We expected Beverly would come out hard and we found a way to get it done in the third period.”The Sachems (9-1-7, 6-1-7) moved into a second place tie with the Panthers (12-4-1, 9-3-1) and Winthrop in the North, two points behind Peabody. Beverly and the Vikings meet on Saturday with each still in control of its own fate in the division.The Panthers, however, will be without senior captain Mitch Hamor in the showdown as he was given a game disqualification late in the third period after a hit from behind on Saige Tait.”There were just too many penalties,” Beverly coach Bob Gilligan said. “The rhythm of the whole game was just thrown off.”The tone was set immediately as Beverly’s Andrew Irving was called for an elbow at the 36-second mark. It would not be the last penalty of the night.Each team had a pair of power play chances in the first period but couldn’t capitalize and they skated to the locker rooms with the game scoreless after one.The sin bin continued to be a popular place in the second as each team took a penalty in the first 90 seconds. Beverly netminder Tony Walsh came up with a huge stop at the end of Saugus’ power play, robbing Kurt Rodrigues on a breakaway.Beverly missed on its fourth man advantage chance midway through the period before the Sachems got their fourth try moments later and didn’t miss.Drew Oxley took a pass from Dan Groark just inside the Beverly blue line and fired a laser beam wrist shot over Walsh’s shoulder at 10:06 to make it 1-0.The penalty box would become the place to be late in the second as Saugus was called for three infractions and Beverly one in the final five minutes. None would be more damaging than Groark’s boarding call with 50.9 seconds left that was his fourth of the game and resulted in him leaving the festivities for the evening.”We’ve had games like this this year where the penalties were going against us and we weren’t able to battle through it,” Natalucci said. “(Wednesday) we found a way to get through and that’s a good sign at this time of year.”The Panthers came out hard in the third and tested Saugus goalie Nick Hegarty severely but he was able to hold the fort brilliantly. Tait then gave the Sachems a bit of breathing room at 6:06 when he finished off a backdoor pass from Ralph Paglucca.Less than a minute later, Beverly’s Matt Hamor shaved the lead back to a goal with a bullet from the blue line and it looked like this one was set for a crazy ending.Little did anyone know that the teams would be called for nine penalties over the final 7:15 of the game. Rodrigues gave Saugus back its two goal lead at 9:43 when he was set up by Nick Sweeney for his 10th of the year.The speedster added his second of the night with 1:02 remaining and Walsh off for an extra attacker to close out the scoring.