Lynn Jets defeat Salem 4-2 in Christmas Tournament

LYNN – The Lynn Jets boys hockey team (2-2) defeated Salem 4-2 in the opening round of the Lynn Christmas Tournament at Connery Rink on Tuesday.”We got off to a quick start tonight, which was nice after we gave up goals in the first two minutes of our last two games,” said Jets coach Joe Conlon. “We talked about getting off to a better start and you can’t do much better than 13 seconds.”On the opening goal, senior captain John Finnigan took the puck deep below the Salem goal line before feeding a slick pass to Ryan MacDonald, who beat Salem goalie Brett Harring. Finnigan was a beast all night, finishing with a goal and two assists.Finnigan’s goal opened up a 2-0 lead at 10:45 of the opening period as his wrist shot picked the top right corner. Salem (0-5) cut the lead in half at 6:37 on a goal from freshman Sam Petri on assists from Jake Stahlmon and Paule DiMarino.A second tally from Petri (assisted by Matt LeBlanc) evened things at two just 27 seconds into the second period, in which Salem carried the pace of play.”We started poorly in the second but I think we started to take control towards the end,” said Conlon.Lynn thought it had the lead at the 3:10 marker of the second, but the goal was disallowed due to a kicking motion.”That was a tough goal to go against us but we were able to rebound,” said Conlon.The eventual game winner for the Jets came at 12:45 of the third. Defenseman Aaron Roddick’s shot from the point deflected off a Salem player before finding the back of the net. Tony Uva was credited with an assist.Lynn added a 5 on 3 goal to put things out of reach at 7:14. Brett Erelli moved uncontested down the slot before beating Harring through traffic. Finnigan and MacDonald assisted.Lynn moves on to the championship game where it will play Everett, who won its opening game earlier in the night. Salem will play Northeast in the consolation game.Everett 3, Northeast 2Shawn Doyle’s goal with 1:48 remaining boosted the Crimson Tide (3-1) past the Golden Knights (0-4) in the opening game of the Lynn Christmas tournament.