Rodrigues, Oxley power Saugus past Fenwick

SAUGUS – Sixteen days ago, the Saugus hockey team sat at 1-3-1 with a lot more questions than answers on its plate.Now the Sachems have become one of the hottest teams in the Northeastern Conference.Kurt Rodrigues scored four times on Wednesday, all assisted by Drew Oxley, as Saugus blasted past Bishop Fenwick, 6-0, at Kasabuski Arena for its sixth straight win in a rematch of last year’s Division 2 North quarterfinals.”We knew that Fenwick was going to come in looking to make a statement,” Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci said. “And the guys were ready for that.”The Sachems (7-3-1) used their speed and relentless forecheck to wear down the Crusaders (1-9-1) in the second period when they turned the game into a runaway.”We had a decent first period and then we had a six minute spell there where we didn’t play well,” said Crusader coach Dan Lynch. “And that hurt us.”Saugus got out of the gates fast, needing a little less than three minutes to jump on top when Oxley made a nifty back pass to Rodrigues in the slot for a 1-0 lead.Fenwick quickly tried to counterpunch, sternly testing Nick Hegarty over the next several minutes. But the senior goalie was able to make seven stops to keep the Sachems in front.”Fenwick had a couple of good rushes there in the first and Nick came up with some good saves for us,” Natalucci said.Rodrigues and Oxley would team up again to double the lead late in the period with Rodrigues finishing a perfect pass at 11:46.That goal seemed to be a spark for Saugus, who came out at the start of the second with the intention of blowing the game wide open.Pat O’Leary did his best to keep the Crusaders close for a bit. But when Rodrigues completed his hat trick at 5:46, assisted again by Oxley, it opened the floodgates.On the next sortie down ice, Rodrigues banged home a pass from behind the net for a power play goal at 6:03 to increase the lead to 4-0. Just over a half minute later, it was 5-0 when Nick Taylor scored to knock O’Leary from the game.Anthony Angelesco took over in goal and faced the same onslaught that his teammate was going through as Saugus was relentless.”When we can use our speed, those are the things that can happen,” Natalucci said. “We did a good job of the basics. We got the puck deep and our forecheck was great.”The second period barrage was completed by Steve McKinney at 11:30 as he netted his first career goal, assisted by Steve Kay and Danny Groark.Neither team would score in the third but combined for 12 penalties, many of them coming after the whistle.”I wasn’t pleased with a lot of the late stuff at the end,” Lynch said. “That’s not how I want my team to play.”