LYNN— It’s early in the season and the Swampscott boys hockey team is still looking to find its footing. Perhaps Thursday night’s shootout win over Northeast in the championship game of the Lynn Christmas Tournament at Connery Rink will steer the Big Blue in the right direction.
Senior forward Thomas O’Keefe and junior forward Zach Elwell were the Swampscott heroes in the win. O’Keefe scored a pair of goals in regulation to make it 2-2, and Elwell cashed in the lone goal of the 1-0 shootout to propel Swampscott (2-2-2) to its second tie of the young season.
“The last couple games, we’ve come out with slow starts,” Swampscott coach Gino Faia said. “Tonight we had a slow start. We committed a lot turnovers and that hurt us. I thought the third period was much better, the way we normally play. But for whatever reason, we’ve had slow starts. Unfortunately it ended in a tie but we’ll take the shootout win.”
The game goes into the record books as a tie, but the shootout win marks the second year in a row that Swampscott has taken the tournament’s championship. It was also the second shootout victory for Swampscott in as many days, as it took down host Lynn in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday. Elwell also scored a goal in Wednesday’s shootout.
Thursday, the Big Blue struck first in the opening period. Northeast committed a pair of penalties in the period, handing Swampscott two power plays. Swampscott couldn’t make anything of the first opportunity, but cashed in on the second. O’Keefe fired a shot past Northeast goalie Paul Morrissey for the 1-0 Big Blue lead with four minutes remaining. Senior defenseman Dominic Codispoti dished the assist on the goal. Swampscott held the 1-0 lead at the end of the period.
“Thomas is the hardest worker on the team,” Faia said. “Those are two typical goals of him just going hard, rebounds, working hard and nothing pretty. Those are the kind of goals we’re looking for and we ask him to get. He’s the guy that gets them.”
Things turned in Northeast’s favor in the second period. Swampscott sent a pair of shots Morrissey’s way in the final two minutes of the period but the Northeast netminder denied them both. Defense turned into offense for the Golden Knights as Luke Buckley knotted the score with a short-handed goal in the closing seconds. The two teams went into the third period tied at 1-1.
“We didn’t know much about Northeast other than that every year they play hard and they’re physical,” Faia said. “They don’t quit and they play hard.
“This tournament’s always balanced,” Faia added. “You always have to come to play. It was a great game between both teams.”
The Golden Knights took the lead in the third period, putting Swampscott on its heels. Jack McIntyre scored the go-ahead goal for Northeast to back the Big Blue into a 2-1 deficit with 11:10 left in the period. It didn’t take long for the Big Blue to respond, as O’Keefe fired in his second goal of the night 40 seconds later to even the score at 2-2. Steve Santanello logged the assist on the goal. It remained tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation.
“That second goal was really big,” Faia said. “Afterwards, we had a bunch of chances. Northeast’s goalie made a bunch of saves and we just couldn’t finish any of them.”
Both goalies were tough to beat in the shootout. Swampscott senior goalie Dan Johnson denied all five Northeast attempts. On the other side, Morrissey blocked the Big Blue’s first four attempts before Elwell iced the win the game-winner on the fifth try of the shootout.
“Zach’s really good at shootouts,” Faia said. “He did it the night before (against the Jets). It was the same kind of play. He has good hands and he’s good around the net.”
Johnson, per usual, was strong in net and finished with 25 saves in the winning effort.
Swampscott now shifts gears to preparing for Saturday’s game at Dracut.
“We need a faster start and more shots on net,” Faia said. “We’re looking to produce some offense. We’re kind of struggling scoring-wise, relying on the same few guys. We’re hoping to get some more offense going.”
