Saugus secures Newburyport Bank title behind MVP Hegarty

NEWBURYPORT – On a night when its offense wasn’t at its frenetic best, the Saugus High hockey team leaned heavily on junior goaltender Nick Hegarty Wednesday.Hegarty delivered a 22-save gem for his fifth shutout of the year to lead the Sachems past Shawsheen, 1-0, in the Gulazian Division championship game of the 16th annual Newburyport Bank Classic at Graf Rink. Hegarty was selected Gulazian Division MVP and joined on the All-Tournament team by junior defenseman Danny Groark and junior forward Drew Oxley. Saugus (12-1-7) completed its best regular season since winning back-to-back Division Two State titles in 2003 and 2004.”Nick has been doing this all year. He’s just been phenomenal. He covers the net very well and he just doesn’t get rattled,” said Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci, who also praised defensemen Groark, Kyle Powers, A.J. Guthro and Steven Spinney for their role in shutting down the Rams (15-4-1), who’ve scored 107 goals this season and figure to be a major factor in the Division 3 North Sectional.”Our defense did a really good job and has been solid all year. They moved the puck well and really had to bear down at the end,” said Natalucci, referencing a Rams power play in the final 33 seconds with goalie Ryan Maskell (18 saves) pulled in favor of an extra attacker and Groark in the box for a crosscheck.Shawsheen’s hard-charging, physical style seemed to surprise the Sachems in the early going as the Rams registered a number of jaw-rattling open ice hits and controlled the tempo. Hegarty flashed his glove at 5:22 to snag Kenny Hugh’s testing shot from the mid-slot after he picked off an errant Saugus clearing attempt.The Sachems didn’t register their first shot on net until 6:01 remained in the period. Nevertheless, they exited with a 1-0 lead when Oxley wiggled past a Shawsheen defender at the blue line and slid a perfectly-placed backhand pass to Steve Kay for a close-range tuck past Maskell’s left skate at the far post with 1:32 left in the period.Otherwise, it was a frustrating night for the Sachems as a number of potential opportunities never materialized as passes were just off the mark of their intended target.”It’s nice to win this tournament but it definitely wasn’t one of our better efforts. They (Shawsheen) were very physical and we never really got our feet under us and got our skating game going. I think we were a little timid with the puck at times, which is why you saw a lot of those passes just miss,” Natalucci said.Hegarty and Maskell gobbled up everything that came their way for the remainder of the game. The most entertaining sequence came with Shawsheen on the power play early in the third period. At one end, Maskell roamed 15 feet out of his net to turn aside Guy Capillo’s shorthanded bid. Seconds later, Hegarty split and jammed his skate to the right post to deny Tom Price’s shot from the left circle.