Jets run out of gas against Northeast

LYNN – The Lynn Jets boys hockey team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday night at Connery Rink, falling 7-4 to Northeast, in the championship of the Lynn Christmas Classic. Trailing 3-0 after one period, the Jets tried clawing their way back into the game, but the Knights had an answer for every surge the hosts could muster.?It was a game of momentum tonight, and unfortunately we came out on the losing end,” explained Lynn coach Joe Conlon. “We had another poor start, which is something we have addressed but obviously haven?t fixed yet, and we had trouble finishing periods as well.”Northeast (4-0) stormed out of the gates, scoring twice in a span of 1:04, the first from Zach Sheehy, who buried a rebound past Jack Stafford, following a shot from Chris Straccia. Michael Wesley doubled the lead at the 9:31 mark with help from Shawn Curry and Ryan Bartol.The Knights would score on their third consecutive shot when Steve Czarnota (4 assists) buried a shot from the top of the right circle. Anthony Aresco was credited with the first of two helpers.Northeast had six players with multi-point efforts.After a back-and-forth second period, the teams would engage in a wild final three and a half minutes of the frame, which was ultimately marred by an injury.Lynn (3-1-1) finally got on the board at the 3:33 mark after Alex Amico finished off a great feed from Jon Kosmas to the top left corner. Tyler Craig added a secondary assist.Just 31 ticks later, the hosts pulled within one when Brett Erelli, camped out in front of goalie Calvin Taddeo, banged home a Corey Wojewodzic feed from behind the net.With seemingly all the momentum on their side, the Jets would suffer a tough loss when Dan Rustani remained on the ice in the neutral zone after falling awkwardly into the boards. The senior would eventually skate off under his own power, but wouldn?t return.After the lengthy delay, Northeast would take advantage of the Jets? loss in manpower, scoring twice in 1:10 to regain a three-goal lead. Wesley picked up his second tally of the game before Gino Lanciani (from Forte) scored from traffic in front with 1:01 remaining.?It was huge for us to grab those two goals late and give ourselves a bit of a cushion going into the third,” said Northeast coach Jeremy Scafidi. “I thought we showed a lot of character tonight against a great team who beat up on us last season.”The Jets would attempt comebacks in the final frame, cutting their deficit to a pair on two occasions, the first just a minute in. Eric Brazell finished off a tic-tac-toe play at the right post following nice feeds from Ryan MacDonald and Mark Brazell (3 assists).Northeast would respond just under four minutes later when Noah Forte beat Stafford clean with a slap shot from the top of the left circle. Curry and Czarnota picked up helpers.Lynn?s final goal came from MacDonald with 8:12 to play when the defenseman pushed in a loose puck in the crease following a shot from Mark Brazell at the point that deflected off his brother Eric at the top of the crease.Sheehy would add an empty-netter with 14 seconds remaining to ice things.In Saturday evening?s consolation game at Connery Rink, Everett (3-2) got the winning goal from Stephen Faia with 2:54 remaining in the third period of a 3-2 win over host Swampscott. The Big Blue (1-3-1) had tied the game less than three minutes before on a tally from Louis Olivieri.Louis Staffieri?s goal gave Everett a 1-0 lead after the first 15 minutes before Swampscott evened the score with 41 seconds left in the middle frame, on a goal from Mike Johnson. The Crimson Tide retook the lead just 2:00 into the third period on a tally from Ray Suppa.