SALEM — Too fast, too physical, simply too much.
A simple description for the methodical way Swampscott dismantled Salem, 7-1, last night at Rockett Arena.
From the opening faceoff, the unselfish Big Blue offense sent waves of pressure upon beleaguered Witches goalie Brett Harring (41 saves before being subbed out with five minutes left). The gulf should have been even wider if not for the focused play of Harring, who must have X-ray vision to have made some of the stops he did.
“Brett’s a great goalie and we knew we’d have to get shot after shot on him,” said Swampscott head coach Gino Faia. “We emphasized (a fast start) before the game. Upbeat is our speed and we were looking to take advantage of that.”
With a mobile, aggressive defensive corps led by Chris Carman, Trevor Massey and Pat Burkett, playing uptempo was never an issue. Swampscott (now 5-1, 2-1 in the NEC South) won all the neutral zone battles and marched unimpeded for repetitive offensive opportunities.
“We’ve got a pair of offensive defensemen (in senior co-captains Carman and Massey),” said Faia. “They’ve been around for four years, they know how we want them to play and what we need to do to succeed. They play hard on both ends of the ice.”
Carman’s energy started the scoring 10 minutes into the contest when, after a pair of his shots were turned aside, he pounced on a loose puck that squirted out of the slot and rifled it into the lower right corner of the cage.
Two minutes later, on a Big Blue power play, Carman used a partial screen from teammate Griffin Hunt to laser a slap shot over Harring’s catching glove. And the rout was on.
Corey Carmody and Ryan Cresta each toasted Salem defenders for second-period goals and Nunzio Morretti scored twice in the third period, bookending Joey Silva’s nice wraparound tally.
“Finally we got three solid periods from all three lines and our defense,” said Faia. “We got the forecheck going, got the shots and the rebounds, and we were aggressive all night.”
The blowout marks the start of a challenging stretch for Salem (1-4-2, 0-2-1), who broke the shutout on Matt Talbert’s third-period power-play goal.
“We know we’re on a very tough run of games and there was a question of how we’d react,” said head coach Ted Hanley of Marblehead, Beverly and Gloucester lingering in the immediate future. “It’s the meat of our schedule and we’re looking to keep ourselves together as a positive unit. We’re looking to win the little battles – win the next five minutes (of the game). We’re going to keep fighting.”
