LYNN — Not to mix metaphors, but going into the hockey season, all connected with the Lynn Jets knew this was going to be brand new ballgame.
Gone was all-Northeastern Conference goalie Jack Stafford, who had kept his team in many games over the previous couple of seasons with his spectacular play.
And gone, also, was coach Joe Conlon, who steadied the program after Al Melanson suffered a heart attack that left him unable to direct the team.
This season, it’s Mike Roberts behind the bench and junior Jack Gallant between the pipes.
Roberts, at least, has had some experience coaching. Gallant, going into the season, had none as a high school goalie. Sophomore Kenny Perez, who attends Lynn Tech, was still busy with football when winter practices began, and Roberts needed someone to fill the bill in the interim. Gallant volunteered to put on the pads and give it a go. Roberts liked what he saw.
Here it is, five games into the season and Gallant is the man. He’s learning fast, Roberts says. But the coach would like it better if the team tightened up in front of him.
“He (Gallant) has done really well,” said Roberts Saturday, after the Jets suffered a 7-4 loss to Beverly. “But we gave up too many turnovers, and gave them too many easy goals. A lot of those goals weren’t his fault. We’re turning the puck over too many times, and they (Beverly) are a very good team. You can’t do that against a team like that.”
Five games in, the Jets are 2-3. They won their first game against Somerville, lost to Gloucester and Swampscott (in a shootout), beat Boston Latin Academy after falling behind in the first period, and then lost to Beverly Saturday.
The problem, said Roberts, is a failure to get off to decent starts.
“I don’t know what it is,” said Robert, “but we’ve fallen behind early way too much.”
The good news, Roberts said, is that the Jets don’t simply pack it in when they fall behind like that.
“We fight ’til the end,” he said. “We don’t give up. That’s our motto. We’re going to battle the entire game.”
Saturday was a case in point. Beverly had a 3-0 lead after only four minutes, and was ahead 7-2 after two periods.
“That’s the third time this year this has happened,” he said. “The first time was against Gloucester, and it ended up being a 10-2 loss. We came back to beat Latin Academy, and we ended up making this respectable too.”
It was a curious game. Beverly was all over Lynn in the early going. For the first half of the opening period, Lynn couldn’t get the puck out of its own end. In fact, said Robert, “if it wasn’t for Jack (Gallant), we would have been a lot further behind.”
By the end of the period, Lynn had regained its footing and began getting some shots on net. The Jets missed a couple of good opportunities as well.
“We had our chances,” mused Roberts.
Lynn finally found the net in the second period, with goals by Aiden Seitz (assisted by Matt Devin) and Mike Clougherty (with the helper from his brother Brian). Unfortunately for the Jets, Beverly found the net three times.
“We outskated them for the last two periods, and, I thought, outplayed them,” Roberts said. “But again, we gave up the puck and gave them chances.”
In the third period, it was all Lynn. Not only did the Jets keep Beverly off the board, but they got goals from Brian Clougherty (John DiFilippo) and then by DiFilippo (from Mike Clougherty).
Beverly got a hat trick from Ryan Munzing, plus two from Paul Edson, and one each from Anthony D’Amato and Andrew Mezza.
Roberts, despite the loss, was upbeat.
“This was our third game in four days,” he said, noting that the Jets hosted the Lynn Christmas Tournament Wednesday and Thursday. “That’s a lot of hockey to play. I like the way we fought back today. You can take something from that.”
