Salem boys hockey sinks Swampscott

SALEM – The Salem boys hockey team earned a big two points on Wednesday afternoon, defeating Northeastern Conference South rival Swampscott, 3-1, at Salem State?s Rockett Arena. The Witches improve to 2-3-1 in NEC play while the Big Blue fell to 0-5-1.?That was a great win for us tonight against a tough team,” explained Salem (3-5-1) coach Ted Hanley. “Swampscott?s very similar to us in the fact that they keep coming at you. I thought they controlled the play for the first half of the game, but our goalie, Brett Harring, kept us in it until we found our way on offense.”Harring was indeed the story of the game, stopping 29 shots total, including a barrage of eight in the opening three minutes of the second period.?At the beginning of the season, we figured that if we had a chance at making the tournament, Brett would have to get us there,” said Hanley of his senior net-minder. “Every game that we win boils down to his performance and tonight was no different.”After outshooting Salem 9-4 in the opening 15 minutes, the Big Blue came out with a relentless attack to start the middle frame. After Harring weathered the storm in the defensive zone, the Witches capitalized on their first opportunity of the period to grab the lead.Shortly after going on the power play, Salem?s Eli Spector connected with Sam Petri on a stretch pass up the middle of the neutral zone. Petri would break in alone on Trent Gallagher before beating the junior net-minder with a slick move to the backhand, fighting through a trip.Swampscott had a couple chances to tie things late in the period after heavy pressure in the Witches? end. Ryan Donnelly missed just wide of the left post after a great move to get to the goal-mouth with 48 seconds to play before a Ryan Cresta wrist shot also missed the left post with 18 ticks remaining.?I thought we played well enough to win but we couldn?t put the puck in the net,” explained Swampscott coach Gino Faia. “We knew coming in that Harring would be tough to beat and he was just that. The opportunities were there for us today.”An eventful third period started with a fortunate penalty kill for Salem. With Petri in the box, Harring made a fantastic save on Louis Olivieri, whose back-door bid was rebuffed with a pad-stack.Moments later, at the 12:37 mark, the Big Blue thought they had the equalizer when the puck finally found its way past Harring. The referees, however, quickly washed out the goal.?The referee that made the call came over and said he thought the puck was tied up at the post,” explained Faia. “It was a tough call to have go against us and would have been a big moment for us, but it wasn?t the reason we lost.”The Witches wasted little time in capitalizing on the momentum swing, doubling their lead just over a minute later. After taking a pass from Eamon Williamson just outside the blue line, Danny Heck entered the Swampscott end from right to left before firing a wrist shot just inside the far post.Salem would add another with 4:55 to play when Adam Ngo finished off a brilliant feed from Petri at the left post. On the play, Petri fought his way down the right wall to the goal line before spotting Ngo heading to the net.Swampscott broke the shutout just 1:03 later when Olivieri?s shot beat Harring through a crowd. Mike Johnson picked up the lone assist on the play.