REVERE — Whether it was the proximity of the two opponents to each other, the magnitude of the game, the smaller size of the venue, or — most probably — a harmonic convergence of everything, Swampscott and Lynn gave the fans who came to see them Friday evening a wild and wonderful hockey game.
Swampscott won, 3-2, which means the Big Blue, and not the Lynn Jets, will be at the Tsongas Center Sunday at 3 p.m. (a change from the originally-scheduled Monday) to face either Wayland or St. Joseph’s Prep for the Division 3 North championship.
The game was supposed to be at Chelmsford Thursday, but the postponements from the storm earlier in the week forced all tournament hockey participants to shuffle the deck. That meant Revere, in the case of this game. And while the fans from Lynn and Swampscott enjoyed a closer-than-expected venue, logistically things were a bit challenging.
Fans who got there late (and in this case, late meant 5 p.m. for a 5:30 game) were forced to park in the lots of nearby business, risk getting towed (though none did), and trudge through snow and puddles to get to the rink.
“Yet,” said Swampscott athletic director Kelly Farley, “everybody behaved. There was no ugliness anywhere. It was fans enjoying a sporting event, and I thought it was fantastic.”
When it was time to play, there wasn’t a seat to be had at the rink, and once the game got going, fans were standing around the glass two-and three deep.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of hockey, both playing and coaching, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said first-year Lynn coach Mike Roberts. “Our kids have never seen this.
“We tried, at the beginning of the season, to spread the Lynn Jets name around, get kids at the younger levels involved. And you saw tonight a strong number of Lynn Youth Hockey kids come to watch us.”
The atmosphere was so electric, in fact, that both coaches felt it necessary to talk to their players about it.
“We had that extra day off,” said Roberts, “We knew that once we went into the small venue, the crowd would be insanity.”
Players and coaches on both sides made note of it.
“You could see it in our kids all through the first period,” said Swampscott coach Gino Faia. “They were nervous. But once the game got going, everybody settled in.”
“I have to be honest,” said Connor Donovan, who scored the game-winning goal, “When I saw that crowd, and heard it, my heart sank right out of me. But once I got into the game, I was better.”
Faia said you can tell your players as often as you can that they have to tune some of that out, but then you come onto the ice and see it, and it’s hard to do that.”
“But,” said Roberts, “I thought we played pretty well off that.”
The teams gave the capacity crowd and then some a game to remember. There wasn’t a still moment in the 45 minutes of play, with end-to-end action the norm. The x-factor, said Faia, was Dan Johnson, Swampscott’s all-star goalie.
“We put a bunch of shots on him,” said Roberts, “but when you’ve got a guy like Johnson, that’s a huge advantage.”
“They put a barrage of shots on me,” said Johnson, “especially at the end. But I wasn’t the only one out there. My teammates were there too.”
