Fenwick ends post-season drought

SALEM – A bit of historical context is required in order to understand the Bishop Fenwick hockey team’s fervent post-game celebration Tuesday night. The Crusaders’ 2-1 Division Two North Sectional first-round win against North Andover at Rockett Arena ended a 16-year post-season victory drought.Senior captain Bret Kidik (“I was two years old the last time they did this”) swatted home the rebound of Joe Shea’s shot with 3:09 left in regulation to propel the No. 5 Crusaders (15-4-2) into Saturday’s quarterfinal round at a site and time to be determined against the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between Saugus and Stoneham.Shea, a junior wing, drove hard from the left side with the sole purpose of creating a rebound against North Andover’s stellar freshman goalie Joel Daccord (27 saves). “Their kid was good. I just wanted to take the shot and try to get a rebound for someone to have a chance at,” he said.”I just kept my stick on the ice. Coach is telling us 24/7 to keep our sticks on the ice. Today I did and look what happened,” said Kidik, who delivered a purposeful locker room speech after two periods with his club trailing, 1-0.Although the Crusaders started with plenty of jump, sending 10 shots Daccord’s way in the game’s first seven minutes, they seemed to hit a wall midway through the first period and both teams slogged their way through a stalemate in the second.”They (NA) turned it up late in the first period and we didn’t. I thought we came out in the second and started playing our game and was really happy with the way we responded in the second and third periods. We made some adjustments and really played well in the defensive zone, limiting them to perimeter shots,” said coach Dan Lynch, who pinpointed his club’s penalty-free performance as another key to the win.After weathering Fenwick’s early storm, the No. 11 Scarlet Knights (11-7-4) grabbed a 1-0 lead at 10:53 of the first period. Ricky O’Connor picked off an errant clearing pass and found David Messina alone in the slot for a 20-footer that beat Brad Rocheville (25 saves) to the far side.A scoreless second period certainly didn’t lack for action, albeit in spurts, as Rocheville and Daccord traded a number of glittering saves. Daccord’s best came eight seconds after the period faceoff when he squeezed Shea’s shot from the slot between his catching glove and left pad. Rocheville saved his best for the period’s final minute, sliding left to smother Jake Silk’s re-direct of Nick Pino’s pass up from the left point.Still, the Crusaders entered the third period down a goal and needing a spark. They got it at 5:19 when defenseman Will Clancy’s home-run pass from deep in his own zone sent a streaking Max Anderson off for a slick breakaway finish that tied it. With Mike Anderson anchoring the defensive effort, the Crusaders held North Andover in check until Kidik connected.North Andover pressed with an extra attacker but O’Connor’s apparent equalizer with 42 seconds left was waved off when the net came off its pins as he was shooting.