PEABODY ― Perhaps it was fitting that two elite hockey teams got together and didn’t settle anything ― even after a four-minute 4-on-4 overtime period.
That was the case Saturday afternoon at McVann-O’Keefe Rink, when Lynnfield and Masconomet faced off in a boys hockey team. Each team went into the game with 13-2 records and each team ended the day at 13-2-1. The final score was 1-1, which would belie the fact that, especially in the final two periods, there was lots of end-to-end action despite the lack of scoring.
This was the Bob Driscoll Can-Do Classic, in honor of the man who coached at Masco for 33 years and had more than 300 wins.
“I thought we went back and forth for the whole game,” said Lynnfield coach John Gardner. “I think in the first period, we were feeling each other out, but after that it was a good, evenly-played game. Lots of good saves by the goalies, too.”
As Gardner said, nothing much happened in the opening period. But in the second, things started happening. The Pioneers got on the board first with 13:55 left in the period when Joe Raffa connected. Jarret Scoppattuolo dug out the puck from behind the net and fed it out front to Raffa, who beat Masco goalie Nick Santangelo.
Less than a minute later, just after Lynnfield was whistled for a penalty, the Chieftains got the equalizer. After Masco won a faceoff in the Lynnfield zone, a shot rang out off the crossbar and dislodged the net. Once everything was put back together again, Masco won another faceoff and Matt McMillan found the back of the net, with assists from Richard Gaurino and R.J. Sacco.
The third period featured fast-paced action, but also had an equal amount of team defense, back-checking and timely blocks. As a result, not much got through to either Santangelo or Lynnfield goalie Phinneas Mitchener.
In the overtime, Lynnfield had the best chance, and that was after a Masco penalty left the Pioneers with a 4-on-3 power play. Drew Damiani, who was all over the ice all afternoon, had a point-blank shot at Santangelo, but it hit the crossbar.
“Obviously, hitting the crossbar at the end hurt,” said Gardner. “The old cliche is that it’s a game of inches, but this is a game of millimeters.
“This was kind of a chess match,” he said. “We are familiar with each other, and they were trying to match up lines. It ended up being a 10-man game, for the most part.”
