Headers survive strong Peabody finish for victory

PEABODY – Maybe next year Peabody will be rewarded for efforts like last night.With a dominant first-period effort getting Marblehead a 3-1 lead, the youthful Tanners turned the tables and closed to within a goal on Cam Smullen’s power-play marker with 10:21 left in the game.Peabody (now 3-9-2) continued to pour on the pressure but not only failed to get the equalizer, but yielded a back-breaking short-handed tally as Marblehead (11-3) survived for a 4-2 victory.Click here for a photo gallery.”We were all over them in the third period, outshooting them 15-4,” said Tanners head coach Mark Leonard, congratulating each of his players exiting the locker room as he talked to reporters post-game. “We had a great effort and I feel bad for our guys. They haven’t had much luck this year and I really thought we’d pull out at least a tie.”The Tanners actually started their comeback midway through a scoreless second period, forcing mistakes from the Header defensemen and matching their opponent’s physical play. And with three power-play opportunities in the third period sparked by amped-up forechecking from seniors Erik Hennessey and Tyler Gillespie as well as junior Andrew Gillespie (“one of his best games all year,” said Leonard), Peabody dominated.But, as usually happens to youthful squads, the more experienced Headers jumped on a split-second opportunity and extinguished the Tanners’ fire.Forward Trip Franzese sprinted across his defensive blue line to stop Tanner point man Chris Minter from unleashing another slap shot. Additionally, he set up teammate Matt Koopman for a breakaway.”I was just in the right place at the right time,” described Franzese. “The defenseman didn’t see me, and the first thing I wanted to do was keep him from shooting, and then I wanted to tip the puck out (from the boards). Luckily, I got them both done.”Koopman sprinted down center ice, then took a 90-degree right turn across the crease, backhanding the puck over the fallen Joe Powers with four minutes left in the game and two seconds remaining on a Header penalty. After keeping Peabody in the hunt with 31 saves, Powers was left smacking his stick against the boards in frustration after the tally.A looping wrist shot from Tyler Gillespie 1 1/2 minutes into play got the Tanners ahead first, but Marblehead rebounded via persistent offense to get goals from Dean Fader, Tom Koopman (his 11th) and Franzese (his 16th).”That was probably our best power play of the year,” said Franzese of his rebound wrister into the left side of the net. “We’ve switched from an overload to a new umbrella set and everyone has been doing their roles perfectly.”Of the roller-coaster ride to victory, Headers head coach Bob Jackson said, “It’s a learning curve. We wanted to come in and get the victory so we achieved that, but as far as putting the hammer down for 45 minutes ? we just take our foot off the pedal. We had two or three breakaways in the first two periods, then the third was a different period. It was like we put 10 different skaters out there.”But we have eight games left and we’ll find a way to fix things.”