A decade of dominance: Peabody claims tenth straight Carlin Cup win

PEABODY – The Carlin Cup will stay where it has resided for the last nine renditions of the rivalry between Peabody and Bishop Fenwick ? in the hands of the Tanners.A standing room only crowd at McVann-O’Keefe Rink played witness to one of the weirdest high school hockey games one can imagine. The two teams were called for nearly 30 infractions and combined for a staggering 19 power play chances.In the end, it was the Tanners who made it 10 straight wins over their rivals from across town as Rob Houghton scored twice and Derek Savage stopped the nine shots he faced en route to a 3-0 Peabody victory.”There just was not a lot of flow in that game,” Peabody coach Mark Leonard said. “It’s hard to get anything going when you’re juggling lines like you do when you have so many power play and shorthand situations.”Late in the second period, Peabody senior captain Ryan Noftle was ejected from the game after a major penalty for elbowing. It was originally thought that Noftle was also going to be gone for the next two Peabody games, but it was determined that no disqualification was necessary for the penalty.”I’m glad the referees were able to get it right,” Leonard said. “That would have been a big blow for us to lose Ryan.”Just across the hall from the elated Tanner dressing room was a very quiet Fenwick locker room as the Crusaders were left to try to figure out what happened.”We didn’t show up (Monday) and I take responsibility for that as a coach,” Crusader coach Dan Lynch said. “But give credit to Peabody. They played very well and are a well coached team.”The Tanners (11-6-2) were the aggressors right from the start and pelted Fenwick goalie Brad Rocheville with 12 shots in the first 15 minutes. But the Crusaders netminder was more than up to the challenge.The only shot to get past Rocheville came just short of five minutes in when Houghton picked up an Eric Muise (three assists) pass and tucked the puck inside the left post on a wraparound shot.For the most part, the rest of the period was spent with the teams trading power plays as the Tanners headed to the locker room up a goal.”When you’re shorthanded for that length of time, it gets really hard,” Lynch said. “We’re not a team that plays well 5-on-4.”The middle period was a penalty kill fan’s delight as neither team could seem to stay out of the sin bin. Five power play chances went by the board in the second before Peabody upped its lead to 2-0 when Houghton scored on a rebound at 11:25.The Tanners’ 17-shot barrage might have netted more results but Rocheville’s stellar play kept his team alive heading to the third.Play finally settled down in the final 15 minutes as Fenwick failed to score on Noftle’s major penalty and Peabody put an exclamation point on things as Muise drilled a shot from the right point by Rocheville on a power play with 2:23 left.”The kids played hard, they really did,” Leonard said. “There has been a lot of animosity and things said between the kids on both teams this year. It was nice for us to come out and prove that we’re still a pretty good team.”