PEABODY — After a week off, the Lynnfield boys hockey team showed no signs of rust Saturday against visiting Masconomet at McVann-O’Keefe Rink. The game was tough, physical and fast with back-and-forth-action from start to finish.
By the time the dust settled, the Pioneers (8-2-1) broke a tight 1-1 game wide open with three third period goals to defeat the Chieftains 4-1, who came into the game undefeated in Cape Ann League play.
Senior defenseman and captain Joey Mack, the hero of last week’s 2-2 tie with Triton when he notched the game-tying goal with less than a second to play, had a huge day with two goals and one assist.
“This was a big win, we wanted to make sure we kept pace with Newburyport as this was an important turnaround game,” said Lynnfield coach Jon Gardner. “It was an up and down and physical game and pretty clean with only four penalties. We know that every CAL game is going to be competitive, every game is going to be a battle.”
Mack staked the Pioneers to a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal at the 7:15 mark of the first period.
Masconomet evened the score four and a half minutes later with a power play goal from Dylen Campbell. Lynnfield goaltender Aidan Kelly saved Campbell’s initial shot, but the rebound bounced around in the crease, where Campbell finally tucked it home. Will Major and Zach Smith were credited with assists.
The action was wide open in the second period, with both teams having numerous chances to score, but Kelly and Masconomet goalie Tucker Hanson were rock solid.
The final three minutes of the period were all Lynnfield. The Pioneers’ best chance came off a feed from senior captain Kyle Kekoroski to senior Jack Hammersley, but Hammersley’s shot was just wide.
The Pioneers carried that momentum into the third period and got to Hanson.
Junior assistant captain Jaret Simpson got the party started early. A defenseman, he weaved his way over the red line into the offensive zone and fired off a wrist shot from just outside the left faceoff circle that beat Hanson just 33 seconds into the period to give Lynnfield the lead for good.
“We always say that good things happen when you shoot the puck,” said Gardner. “Jay (Gardner’s assistant coach and twin brother) does a great job in scouting so we we had the scouting report from him on their goalie. He likes to go down and stay down, kind of like the Winthrop kid did last year against us in the tournament. We say, just put it on net and it went in.”
With 7:03 to go, junior Chris Flannery got decked after a shot to the head, giving Lynnfield another power play opportunity. Lynnfield peppered Hanson with five shots, but Hanson was up to the task and saved every one.
With under two minutes to play, a rebound off a Mack shot was deflected into the corner, where senior Robbie Brandano tracked it down. He threaded the needle to DeRoche, alone on the left crease, who one-timed past Hanson to make it 3-1. The time of the goal was 13:17.
“That was a nice play, Brandano to George, a really nice pass, but they have done that before this season on a 2-on-1 when they were on the same line and now they are back on the same line,” said Gardner. “It was a great finish by George and it was great vision on Robbie’s part. We always talk about extending leads but when you get past the six or seven minute mark you are really not thinking about scoring, you are just trying to win it 2-1, just hold on and make plays and maybe get an empty netter, so it was a relief to get that third goal tonight.”
Masconomet coach Andrew Jackson called a timeout after the goal and pulled Hanson for an extra skater with about 1:25 left on the game clock.
Fifteen seconds later at the 13:50 mark, Mack put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal.
Kelly finished with 20 saves.
“Aidan works really hard and he was tested today as Masco has got some really good forwards,” said Gardner. “We knew going in that Masco has not had to play third period games, and that’s all we do. We have won a lot of them, have lost a few, but we are used to being in close games in the third period. I past years it’s been when is the acme safe going to hit me in the head.
“I don’t like giving penalty kill goals,” Gardner said, adding “we had chances to clear it, but they killed another one later so that was huge.”
Gardner singled out Flannery for “just taking a beating out there,” and also said he was pleased with the effort of the defense.
“All around, it was just a great effort.”
