PEABODY — There was no stopping the Bishop Fenwick boys hockey team at the 34th annual Carlin Cup Monday afternoon at McVann-O’Keefe Memorial Rink, which saw offensive production from 11 players in a 10-0 rout to spoil cross-town rival Peabody’s senior night.
“Peabody worked hard, they are a whole different team than last year,” said Fenwick coach Jim Quinlan. “They came out hard and wanted to show they could play with us and they did. Our energy was there but we weren’t connecting in the first period, but I thought we picked it up after that.”
Cam Martin notched a hat trick to earn Fenwick’s Bo Tierney Most Valuable Player honors. Diego Alvarez-Segee (one goal, two assists) and Nick Sasso (one goal, two assists) also had 3-point games. Jake Murphy scored two goals. Dillon Bloom earned the shutout in goal, making 15 saves.
Defenseman Mike Zarro was named Bo Tierney MVP for the Tanners.
“He blocked, I lost count at six, shots and killed all four of our penalties,” said Peabody coach Christian Wright. “That’s an all-star (performance) and for a game like this doing what he has been doing all year for us is not only the MVP, but our team MVP in terms of leadership and the way he puts his body at risk. “
Fenwick came into the game with three consecutive Carlin Cup wins under its belt and didn’t take long to exert its dominance, outshooting Peabody 19-6 in the first period. But Peabody hung tough and spotted the Crusaders just two goals (from Murphy and Martin), the first one on the flukey side, to trail 2-0 going into the second period.
Murphy dumped the puck on net from the left point. Peabody goalie Lucas DeMild made the save, but the puck took a funny bounce and dribbled over the goal line just four minutes into the game.
“That was a nice gift because that could have been a 1-1 game as they almost scored, so that could have changed a lot of things,” said Quinlan.
Martin doubled the lead to 2-0 with a powerplay goal about 10 minutes later with Max Viera and Alvarez-Segee picking up assists.
Fenwick amped it up in the middle period, scoring five times to take a commanding 7-0 lead into the final period.
“Their first goal was a fluke and the other one was a power play, so we skated with them in the first period,” said Wright. “It was one of the better periods we have played this year. A regular occurrence for us has been a six-or seven-minute breakdown when we fall apart and four of their five second period goals came in that short span and the wheels came off.
“It’s tough coming in knowing we are playing such a great team and (Fenwick) played good, classy, hard hockey.”
Martin got the party started 28 seconds in. The Crusaders closed out the period with an explosion of offense, scoring four unanswered goals in a span of four minutes to lead 7-0 with three and a half minutes left in the period.
Martin completed his hat trick at the 7:39 mark, then Aidan Anthony, Sasso, Thomas Estella, and Alvarez-Segee added goals to turn the game into a rout.
Murphy, Sasso and Connor Sterniolou capped the scoring with third-period goals.
The Tanners honored seniors James Guiry, Alex Freedman, Adam Aylward, Austin Higginbotham, Nick Ricci and Zarro before the game.
“The seniors have been through a tough time in their four years, yet their leadership was amazing considering,” said Wright.
Since 1987, the Carlin Cup has been played annually at McVann-O’Keefe Rink in Peabody in honor or former Peabody coach Charlie Carlin, who is considered the father of Peabody hockey, having coached the Tanners for 25 years from 1947-1972, leading the Tanners to 17 winning seasons and the North Shore Hockey League championship in 1952. That team is considered to be the best team in the history of Peabody hockey since its inception in 1912, finishing runner up in the state tournament with Its only loss coming in the state final.
A member of the Peabody Athletics Hall of Fame and Massachusetts High School Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame, Carlin suffered a fatal heart attack while coaching the Tanners’ final game of the year on Feb. 23, 1972.
Carlin’s nephew, Robert “Bo” Tierney, spent 34 years as head coach of the Crusaders as well as 10 years as Peabody assistant coach. He, along with Peabody coach Ken Gill, founded the Carlin Cup in 1987. Tierney passed away in September of 2017.
Fenwick (10-7-2) is back in action Wednesday with a non-league game against Triton.
Peabody finished the season 6-13-1.
