Strangie, Danvers win inaugural Clifford Memorial over Peabody

SALEM – It was a state tournament-type atmosphere at Rockett Arena on Saturday as Danvers and Peabody met to honor Mike Clifford, the former Tanner and Falcon assistant coach who passed away last spring at 63.And while both teams did Clifford’s honor proud, the Falcons used a hat trick from Joe Strangie – his second in a row – to take a 4-1 win over the Tanners in the inaugural Clifford Memorial.”Mike meant so much to both of these programs,” Danvers coach Kevin Brown said. “It’s a deserving game for his memory and something that hopefully will last for a while.”The Falcons (4-2) put together one of their best efforts of the season from the opening face-off to the final whistle as they held the territorial play for much of the game, finishing with a 33-22 shots on goal advantage.”We were pretty consistent,” Brown said.Danvers grabbed a 1-0 lead just past the midpoint of the first when Strangie worked loose in the slot and fired an A.J. Couto feed past Joe Powers. Then with just over a minute left in the opening frame, Strangie struck again as he corralled a J.D. Hodgkins rebound and upped the lead to 2-0.The Tanners (2-3) got a much-needed boost on the next shift when Eric Costa roofed a Tommy Burns pass to cut the lead to 2-1 after one.”We played a pretty good first period,” Peabody coach Mark Leonard said. “But the second period was the difference in the game.”Leonard knew of what he spoke as the Falcons put on a dominant effort, outshooting Peabody 14-3 in the middle frame after getting a chat from their coaches during the intermission.”The first period was OK but not to our standards and we sent that message,” Brown said.The message was received loud and clear as Powers was under constant duress but did a stellar job of keeping it a 2-1 game until the final 100 seconds of the period when Strangie capped his hat trick by potting his eighth goal of the year, assisted by Ryan Cassidy and Couto.”We made a couple of mistakes and they put them in the back of the net,” Leonard said.True to their nature, the Tanners clawed back at the start of the third when they had an early power play chance but the Falcons killed off Matt Flynn’s hooking minor. Danvers then caught a break when Kevin Anderson’s dump-in from nearly 100 feet got past Powers to make it 4-1.Peabody would have two late power plays but saw three shots ring off the post and crossbar, thwarting any opportunity to get back in the game.”It was nice to see us stay in our system for three periods,” Brown said.