SALEM — After a less than stellar start to the season, the Swampscott boys hockey team recovered nicely to notch a 3-1 win over the Revere Patriots at Rockett Arena Wednesday night. The Big Blue dropped their first two games of the year and gave up 12 goals in that span, making Wednesday night’s win even sweeter.
“It’s big for us, not only because it’s our first win, but also because it’s a division game in the NEC South,” said Swampscott coach Gino Faia. “Hopefully we can take this win and build some more momentum from it.”
Senior forward Brett Benoit led the way for Swampscott on the night, notching a hat trick. Senior captain Dom Codispoti had two assists. Senior goalie Dan Johnson had 28 saves in the shutout.
“Dan’s the anchor for us back there and he came up big again,” Faia said. “We were able to block a decent amount of shots in front of him, but having him as the last line of defense is big for us.”
The lone goal for Revere was scored by junior Cam Mazza on assists from senior Mike Giordano and junior Matt Cravotta.
“We didn’t come out with enough fight tonight, I don’t even care about the shots on net,” said Revere coach Joe Ciccarello, referring to the fact that the Patriots outshot Swampscott 29-11. “We were too relaxed expecting an easy game and they gave us a tough challenge and we didn’t respond. We need to be better than that.”
The first period was a struggle for both teams and full of penalties. Revere earned two power plays and put eight shots on goal in the period, but Johnson turned them all away. Swampscott struggled to get many shots on goal, only getting two on its one power play chance and only notching four in the whole period.
The second period was much of the same for Swampscott in terms of shots on goal, but this time the Big Blue made their few shots count. The period still didn’t get off to a great start for Swampscott as Revere had two close scoring chances on breakaways within in the first five minutes. But as Swampscott settled down and started moving the puck, the scoring chances began to come. The first came with just under nine minutes left in the period, when Codispoti took the puck into the offensive zone and left a drop pass for Benoit, who promptly fired a wrist shot into the back of the net to give the Big Blue a 1-0 lead. About four and a half minutes later, Benoit poked the puck free for a steal at his own blue line and streaked past the defense for a breakaway goal to put Swampscott up by two.
“Brett’s got good speed out there and great hands, and he did a great job tonight,” Faia said of Benoit.
Swampscott was able to stretch that lead to three goals early in the third period when Codispoti took the puck at center ice and started a two-on-one break with Benoit. After a quick saucer pass right onto his stick, Benoit deked out the Revere goalie and buried a backhanded shot to make it 3-0 with just under nine minutes to go.
Revere was able to answer back with one goal when Mazza hit home a wrist shot from the blue line on a 5-on-3 opportunity with 4:22 left, but that was all the Patriots could muster.
Swampscott (1-2-0) is back in action on Saturday when it takes on Rockport/Manchester Essex at Talbot Rink in Gloucester. Revere (2-0-1) will face off against Essex Tech at Essex Sports Center in Middleton on Saturday.
