PEABODY — For about 35 minutes of game time, it looked like Wednesday evening’s game between the Swampscott and Peabody boys hockey teams would end in a draw. But the Big Blue turned on the jets and scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of the game, coming away with a 4-2 win over the Tanners in a Northeastern Conference battle at McVann-O’Keefe Memorial Rink.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle coming in and we got off to a bit of a slow start, but we’ve been playing in a lot of tight games lately and I think that gave us an advantage,” said Swampscott coach Gino Faia. “Thankfully, we came out on top in this one.”
With the win, Swampscott clinched the NEC South Division title — automatically giving the Big Blue a berth in the state tournament.
“It’s always the first goal of ours every season, win the division and get a spot in the tournament,” Faia said. “I’m proud of the guys, they’ve worked hard to this point and they deserve it. But we’ve still got a long way that we want to go.”
Liam Locke had a big game for Swampscott with two goals, while Drew Olivieri and Matt Griffin each scored one goal. Jake Sweeney notched two assists, while Conor Donovan and Thomas Callahan each had one assist. Freshman goalie Jack Russo made 22 saves.
For Peabody, Alex Freedman and Bryan Swaczyk each had one goal. Anthony Bettencourt, Andrew Sousa and Nathan LePage each had one assist, while goalie Lucas DeMild made 23 saves.
“It’s tough, because we were in a 1-1 game at the start of the third period and we just gave it away,” said Peabody coach Christian Wright. “We did some things well out there and we were executing for the most part, but we just can’t seem to finish games like this off.”
The game was a back-and-forth affair in the early minutes, with each team sending a number of shots on net. It wasn’t until the end of the period that the scoreless tie was broken, and when it was it was with a flurry. Peabody got on the board first when Freedman ripped a wrist shot from the slot that snuck over Russo’s shoulder, making it 1-0. But 59 seconds later, the Big Blue knotted things at 1-1 when Sweeney sent a pass to an open Locke at the right circle for the goal.
After a scoreless second period, Peabody came out swinging in the third. The Tanners scored just 32 seconds into the period, as Swaczyk snuck one under the crossbar to make it 2-1.
But that’s when things started to go wrong for Peabody.
Over the final 11 minutes of the game, the Tanners took four penalties, three of which resulted in goals for Swampscott. First Olivieri knotted things at 2-2, then Griffin scored the eventual game-winner with just under eight minutes to play. Locke capped the scoring with an empty-net powerplay goal in the final seconds of the game.
“That simply cannot happen, giving up four penalties in a 10-minute span,” Wright said. “We started to get a little panicked out there, and when that happened we got a little selfish and started to take dumb penalties. You just can’t do that when you’re up against a talented team.”
“Our powerplay has really been working well lately,” Faia said. “The guys move the puck well and get a lot of good shots, so it was nice to see a couple go in.”
Next up for Peabody (4-8-1) is an NEC bout with Saugus Saturday night (8) at Kasabuski Arena.
“It’s going to be another tough game, (Saugus) played us really tough last time around and we were lucky to come away with the tie,” said Wright. “We’ve just got to put our heads down, continue to work and go out there and execute.”
Swampscott (8-6-0) hosts Lynn Saturday (4:30) at Rockett Arena.
“We want to get into the tournament the old-fashioned way, and that’s by earning the 10 wins you normally need to get,” Faia said. “We’re just going to continue to work hard everyday and try to win as many games as we can coming down the stretch.”
