Saugus stuns top seed Wilmington to reach North finals

NORTH BILLERICA – They were the kings of Division 2 hockey for the bulk of the last decade but Saugus had fallen off the proverbial mountain in recent years. Now, the Sachems have returned to their place in the upper echelon of D2.Led by a hat trick from junior forward Kurt Rodrigues, the Sachems pulled off a stunning 5-1 win over top seed Wilmington on Tuesday at the Chelmsford Forum.Saugus (15-1-7) moves on to play Tewksbury on Friday (5:15) at Chelmsford in the sectional championship game.”We felt like coming in that we didn’t really get the respect we felt like we deserved,” Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci said. “We had only one loss all year and we wanted to show that we belonged here too.”From the very drop of the puck, Saugus had the Wildcats back on their heels and used Saige Tait’s goal 34 seconds into the contest to set the tone for the evening.”Anytime you give up a goal on the first shift of the game, it sets you back,” Wilmington coach Steve Scanlon said. “But Saugus came as advertised. They were quick and had a really good goaltender.”Rodrigues gave the Sachems a 2-0 lead two minutes later when he camped at the right post and was able to swipe a Steve Kay rebound past netminder Joe Aucoin.”That first line has done it for us all tournament,” Natalucci said. “When we’ve needed a big goal, they’ve gotten it for us.”At the other end of the rink, Nick Hegarty was on his game as had been the case in Saugus’ two other tournament wins. His right pad save on Brian Hurley’s bid midway through the first took away the Wildcats’ bid to gain traction.Drew Oxley made it 3-0 moments later when he banged home a Rodrigues rebound at 8:15.”Not to take anything away from Saugus, but that was probably as bad as we’ve played all year,” Scanlon said.Just over a minute later, Wilmington stole back a little of the Sachems’ thunder as freshman Cody McGowan found open room in the slot and deposited a one-timer past Hegarty to make it 3-1 after a period.The Wildcats rode that momentum into the second period by putting on their first sustained attack of the game. Hegarty did the job, however, and kept the game at two goals before his club scored what turned out to be a backbreaking goal.Saugus’ forecheck forced the Wildcats into a turnover which Rodrigues took advantage of for his second goal of the game at 7:58 to make it 4-1.”That’s what we do. We use our speed on our forecheck,” Natalucci said. “And we can do that because we know we have Nick back there.”A penalty to Dalton Rolli for tripping at 11:29 provided the Sachems with an opportunity to go for the knockout punch. Fortunately for Saugus, Rodrigues has a pretty good haymaker.Picking up a Ralph Paglucca rebound, Rodrigues completed his hat trick at 12:46 and sent Saugus to the second intermission in full control of the game.”We talked before the game about getting an early jump because we knew they hadn’t played from behind much this year,” Natalucci said.All that was left for Saugus was to put together a solid 15 minutes of hockey in the third. Despite taking three penalties, the Sachems held Wilmington at bay to lock down the win.