Saugus hockey iced in Div. 2 North tourney

NORTH BILLERICA – Back in the Division 2 North finals for the first time since 2005, the Saugus hockey team got an all-world performance from Nick Hegarty in goal at the Chelmsford Forum on Friday.Click here for more photosMaking spectacular saves left and right, Hegarty all but stole away a game that his team was badly outplayed in. Tewksbury, though, found a way to break a 1-1 tie as Mark Petti scored with 2:46 left and Ryan Doherty added an empty net goal to give the Redmen a 3-1 win and their first sectional title since 1995.”Nicky has been like that all year for us,” Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci said. “We got outworked (Friday). They frustrated us and they beat us at our own game.”Hegarty’s one man show got the attention of even the Redmen fans, who gave him a standing ovation as he left the ice following the game. Another person who had plenty of praise for the junior netminder’s effort was Tewksbury coach Derek Doherty.”(Hegarty) played absolutely phenomenal. He made a couple of absolutely amazing saves on us,” Doherty said. “And he kept making great saves. We knew it was going to take everything we had to get a puck behind him.”The sixth seeded Redmen finished the night with a 40-14 shots on goal advantage and were in complete control for most of the way. In fact, if not for Hegarty’s play, they might have run Saugus right out of the arena.”We knew that they had talent and they made it difficult for us to get puck to the net all game,” Natalucci said. “They beat us to every loose puck and deserved to win (Friday).”Hegarty made it very clear early on that it was going to be hard to get anything past him as he faced a 17 shot barrage in the first period and turned aside an point blank chance from Derek Petti on a power play late in the first. Second later though, Petti got the last laugh as he was able to shovel a Frank Mazzei rebound home at 14:15 for a 1-0 Tewksbury lead after one.Saugus (15-2-7) began the second period with a power play, but the Redmen defense was able to hold them shotless for the full 1:30. Tewksbury then resumed its pressure on Hegarty by hemming the Sachems in their own zone for long periods of time.The Redmen would come away with nothing to show for it in the second period and in fact left the ice with the momentum on Saugus’ side when Danny Groark’s blast from the left point got by a screened Nico Cunha with 22 seconds left to tie the game at 1-1.”We felt like when we got that goal that if we could come out and play a solid 15 minutes that we might have a shot,” Natalucci said.Any momentum Saugus may have had entering the third died when Groark was called for holding at 1:02, giving the Redmen a chance to get their offense in gear.Tewksbury would proceed to unleash a 15 shot assault on the Saugus net in the third. Hegarty, however, kept the game tied thanks to a bushel full of spectacular stops.”The goal they got was because of a mistake by us,” Doherty said. “But I was glad to see how we shook it off and came out and played a great third period.”It looked for all the world like overtime was going to be needed to decide a winner before Saugus turned the puck over in its end and Mark Petti made the Sachems pay when he slid home a Mazzei rebound.The Sachems would pull Hegarty for an extra skater with 50 seconds left, but Ryan Doherty picked the pocket of a Saugus defenseman and fired the puck into the vacated net at 14:31 to close out the win.”We really did have a great year,” Natalucci said. “We knew that we had a lot of talent coming in here, but they had to commit to doing what it took to get here. And it took a while, but they finally bought in.”