Swampscott boys hockey falls to Wayland in D3 North first round

STONEHAM – The Swampscott hockey team strayed away from the system that had helped it make the postseason for five minutes of the second period in Thursday’s Division 3 North First Round game against Wayland.And it was those five precious minutes that cost the Big Blue dearly.The Warriors scored twice in that five-minute span as part of a three-goal second that propelled them to a 3-1 win over the Big Blue.”The second period has kind of been our downfall at times this season,” Swampscott coach Gino Faia said. “And in playoff hockey, it’s tough to come back because you don’t have a lot of room. The guys played hard and kept battling until the end.”The Big Blue (8-9-3) were doomed by a couple of bad bounces but also by an inability at times to get shots through to the Wayland net. The Warriors did a good job of closing down the shooting lanes for Swampscott’s forwards and they were able to turn that into offense.”We had a lot of missed shots,” Faia said. “And when we did get chances, the guys weren’t picking corners like they usually do.”Neither team could manufacture much in the first period but Wayland changed that early in the second when defenseman Marcus Daisy picked up a blocked shot and launched a rocket past Patrick Sheehan at 2:05.Just over two minutes later, Wayland was able to double its lead when Shane Brady cut to the goal and was able to tap home Lee Junkin’s cross-crease pass for a 2-0 Warrior lead.That goal seemed to wake Swampscott up as the Big Blue began to get back to their forechecking game and began to generate chances. But Warrior goalie Ben Boschetto was able to stop all 11 shots he faced in the middle period.”Once we finally got back to getting the puck deep and using our forecheck, we started to play a little better,” Faia said.Wayland would score a backbreaker midway through the period as Altan Altamer was able to snap home a Kevin Yun pass to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead after two.Swampscott kept plugging in the third and was able to get on the board with 2:45 left when Gino Cresta skated down the left wing and snapped a shot far side on Boschetto to cut the lead to 3-1. But the Big Blue could get no closer.