ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Marblehead’s Owen Picariello slides to a stop.
By KATIE MORRISON
SAUGUS — The Saugus boys’ hockey team created a little drama against Marblehead Thursday night at Kasabuski Arena.
With seven seconds left, on a power play with their goalie pulled and down by one goal, the Sachems took a faceoff in Marblehead’s end. But seven seconds wouldn’t be enough time for Saugus to capitalize, and the Sachems fell, 3-2, to the Magicians.
“I’m extremely happy with the way these guys played,” said Saugus (1-5-2) coach Jeff Natalucci. “They worked hard, and I told them that if they play like that every night, we give ourselves a chance to win.”
Marblehead (8-0-1) jumped out to a quick lead in the first period as Tim Kalinowski grabbed the puck on a power play breakaway two minutes in and slid a shot under the legs of Saugus goalie Nick Sanderson. But other than that shot early in the period, Sanderson was a brick wall for the remainder of the first 15 minutes.
Nine minutes into the period, Saugus’ Mike Sarnacchiaro’s wrist shot bounced off Marblehead goalie Ronan Cunningham’s pads and careened across the net, where John Torres was waiting to backhand the rebound into the net to tie the game.
Marblehead’s Jim McCarthy uncorked a few shots late in the period, but Sanderson shut down any Magicians scoring chance. The Sachems killed two Marblehead power plays late in the period to head into the break tied at one.
The Magicians took the lead again seven minutes into the second period as Andrew McGurrin broke through a scrum in front of the net to put one away with an assist from Ridge Driscoll. Just over a minute later, Owen Picariello weaved through Saugus defenders down the right side of the ice and slid a shot past Sanderson to give the Magicians a 3-1 lead.
Saugus came up with plenty of scoring chances throughout the end of the second and early in the third, but didn’t hit the back of the net until the final two minutes of the game. Sanderson was pulled after recording 33 saves and keeping the Sachems in the contest. Twenty seconds later, Jimmy Alcott got Saugus within one with an assist from Sarnacchiaro.
The Sachems created scoring chances in the final minute as well. Sarnacchiaro almost popped in a loose puck that found its way to the front of the net. But in the end, the Sachems couldn’t complete the comeback.
“I think Saugus played very, very hard. They’ve come a long way since the beginning of the year,” said Marblehead coach Bob Jackson. “Compliments to Jeff and his coaching staff, I think they’ve done a great job. I thought Saugus did a good job of keeping our forwards away from the front of the net and we need to work on winning those battles. We didn’t win enough battles tonight…maybe this will be a good eye-opener for (the team) and we’ll go back to the drawing board. But I’ll take the 8-0-1, it’s a great start and we need to keep moving and keep everyone healthy.”
Katie Morrison can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @KatieMo61.
