Saugus hockey turns in good effort in loss to MC

SAUGUS – It was the type of game that the Saugus hockey team knows it can carry on through the rest of the regular season and expect good things to happen.The Sachems entertained the top-ranked team in Massachusetts on Thursday at Kasabuski Arena and gave a very good accounting of themselves. But Malden Catholic was a little too much for Saugus as Ryan Fitzgerald scored twice to lead the Lancers to a 5-1 win.Despite the loss, Saugus coach Jeff Natalucci had nothing but praise for how his team played.”That was probably the best game that we’ve played all through the win streak we were on,” Natalucci said. “If we can play like that the rest of the way, a lot of good things could happen.”The Lancers (10-1-2) held a 43-16 shots on goal advantage for the game but some stellar play between the pipes from Nick Hegarty kept things closer than many thought the game would be.”Saugus came out and worked really hard,” Lancers coach John McLean said. “And (Hegarty) played well in goal. They came out and made it hard for us.”The Sachems (9-4-1) were outshot 13-8 in the first period but actually had the better scoring chances early on. But they missed on a pair of point blank chances against Connor Mahoney and, as is prone to happen against MC, the Lancers made the Sachems pay for said misses.Hegarty stood tall until the 10:19 mark of the first when Fitzgerald got a Brendan Collier pass and fired a shot from the right circle that glanced off the left post and in for a 1-0 lead.Less than a minute later, a breakdown in the Saugus zone resulted in Brian Cameron getting a near open-net chance to give MC a 2-0 lead after one.”We had some chances early and didn’t capitalize on them,” Natalucci said. “And they were able to capitalize on theirs. You can’t afford to do that against a team as good as they are.”Early in the second, the Lancers went on the power play and didn’t waste time in striking as Fitzgerald snapped home a shot from the left face-off dot to make it 3-0 and seemingly position his team to blow out the Sachems.But Saugus held the fort and then turned it into a game two minutes later as Drew Oxley won a face-off on a power play and got the puck to Kurt Rodrigues. His shot was stopped but Saige Tait pounced on the rebound to cut the gap to 3-1.MC cranked up its game after that but Hegarty was up to the challenge, stopping 17 of the 18 shots he faced in the middle stanza to keep it 3-1 after two.”Nicky played great and that’s what we always expect from him,” Natalucci said.The next goal was going to be pivotal and the Lancers knew it, and it took only 62 seconds for Collier to snap home a Brendan White pass for a 4-1 lead. Pat Wrenn capped the scoring four minutes later as MC outshot Saugus, 12-2, over the final 15 minutes.”WE had some guys step up in the third period when we needed it,” McLean said. “But take nothing away from Saugus; they worked extremely hard for all three periods.”