LOWELL — If the Lynnfield hockey team had had a few more minutes, things may have ended differently.
But the way things shook out, the No. 4 Pioneers just couldn’t score the tying goal in time and ended up falling to No. 1 Marlborough by a score of 3-2 in a Division 3 state semifinal game at the Tsongas Center Monday night.
“It’s obviously a tough loss to take, and I don’t think we had our A-game (Monday),” said Lynnfield coach Jon Gardner. “Give a ton of credit to Marlborough; they took some things away, but I just think we didn’t have it out there. It’s a tough feeling, because I feel that we have a state championship team and I wish we had six more days with this group.”
Will Steadman and Tyler Scoppettuolo each scored a goal in the loss for the Pioneers, while Chase Carney, Jarrett Scoppettuolo and Drew Damiani each had one assist. Goaltender Phineas Mitchener finished the game with 21 saves.
“Phineas made some unbelievable saves early and kept us in it the whole way,” said Gardner. “But we had some close misses. When you talk about a game of inches, we say it’s like a game of millimeters and nanoseconds. We missed by that much, and it made the difference out there.”
The Pioneers came out hot and pushed the pace of play to open the game, even getting a powerplay opportunity within the first three minutes. Lynnfield peppered Marlborough goalie Dan Esteves (26 saves) with shots early, but the junior netminder turned them away and kept the Pioneers off the board.
But a few minutes later, Lynnfield got its chance. After Damiani took control of the puck near center ice, he sent a pass up the boards to Jarrett Scoppettuolo, who then burst into the offensive zone. Tyler Scoppettuolo crept into the slot beside him, and Jarrett sent him a quick centering pass that Tyler knocked home to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead less than eight minutes into the game.
The score remained there for the rest of the first and almost the entire second period, with Mitchener making a number of quality saves to keep Marlborough off the board.
But the Panthers were the No. 1 seed for a reason, and they finally broke through with a flurry late in the second. It all started when Mark Evangelous sent a pinpoint perfect pass to a waiting Marcus Chrisafidies for a one-timer to tie the game with three minutes to go. Then, less than two minutes later, Chrisafidies once again capitalized when a loose puck found his stick and he ripped a shot inside the right post to give Marlborough a 2-1 lead going into the third period.
“I was saying the whole time there, ‘just get into the locker room with it 1-1,'” said Gardner. “But give credit to Marlborough, they were able to keep pushing and get out in front of the net for both of those goals.”
That momentum continued right into the third for the Panthers, as Marlborough came right out and scored on a breakaway opportunity from Noah Lind less than a minute into the frame.
But Lynnfield wasn’t going to go away that easily. Just two minutes later, the Pioneers made it a 3-2 game when Carney found Steadman out front for a goal.
The Pioneers pushed hard from that point on, getting several opportunities to come up with the tying goal. But some unfortunate luck and a few great saves by Esteves kept them off the board until the final buzzer sounded.
Lynnfield finishes the season at 19-4-1.
“I just told the guys, I’ve never been more proud of a group in my 21 years of coaching,” said Gardner. “They came in every day, worked hard and got the job done. You’ll never hear me even come close to saying we have state title aspirations at the start of a year, but this year we did because this is that special of a group. This was an incredible group.”
