Lynn Jets hockey squad defeats Revere

REVERE – There were a lot of new faces in new places for the Lynn Jets when they took the ice for Wednesday’s season opener against Revere at Cronin Rink – some of that coming from graduation and some from the loss of three defensemen due to injuries and disciplinary reasons.Well, leave it to a little adversity to serve as motivation for Lynn as Mike Gately made 31 saves and Ryan MacDonald broke a 3-3 tie with 3:27 left to give the Jets a 4-3 win on opening night.Click here for a photo gallery.”Everyone on that bench gave 100 percent (Wednesday),” Jets coach Joe Conlon said. “I’m very proud of the effort they put forth from top to bottom.”The Jets went with two lines and basically four defensemen and had to stave off a 35-shot barrage from Revere. But Gately came up with the big save time and again to keep his team in the game.”Mike really made some nice saves,” Conlon said. “And the defense in front of him really helped out a lot.”The Jets came out quick and tested Revere goalie John Papasodora early but failed to strike. Revere took the early punch and then would dominate the final 10 minutes of the period, ending up with a 9-5 shots on net advantage, but had nothing to show for it after Gately stoned Pat Bartol in the last two minutes.Buoyed by that momentum, Lynn struck on the first shift of the second period as MacDonald found himself in the right spot to collect a rebound at the left post and shove it home for a 1-0 lead.That served, though, to only get the Revere offense going even more as the Patriots would proceed on an 18-shot barrage on the Lynn netminder. It stayed 1-0 until midway through the period when the Jets were shorthanded.Drew Lauria rushed up ice and made a feed to R.J. Tiorano for a one-timer just inside the left post and Gately’s blocker to tie the game at 1-1.Less than two minutes later, a rebound squirted free off Papasodora’s pads and Tony Uva was there to give the Jets back the lead, 2-1. That margin would last a little under four minutes as Tiorano struck for the second time in the period, firing home Cam Whalen’s pass from behind the goal.”We were very fortunate to get out of the second tied at 2-2,” Conlon said. “That really gave us a lot of momentum when we came out for the third.”The seesaw battle was rejoined in the third as John Finnigan gave the Jets the lead for the third time, set up by MacDonald and Mark Brazell, at 5:06. Once again, Revere was up to the task in answering as Tiorano made a slick feed to Marco Mazzarelli in the crease for the tying goal with 7:10 left.Revere continued to pressure but Gately turned the Patriots aside, giving his team a chance to pounce and it did when MacDonald picked up a turnover in front of the Revere goal and snapped a quick shot past Papasodora.”Every kid gave it 100 percent,” Conlon said. “They bought into what we talked about all week in practice and came out and played fantastic.”