The Lynnfield hockey team finished its regular season 18-1-1, and Jon Gardner would be the first to tell you he “didn’t see that coming.”
“We lost a lot of firepower and had a tough schedule,” Gardner said. “Getting to 18 [wins] was never on my radar.”
One message Gardner told his team early in the season was not to compare itself to last year’s team, but rather, continue to improve.
That said, Gardner did tell his team, “if you want to prove me wrong, then go right ahead”.
The Pioneers recently suffered their first defeat of the season in the Martha Vineyard’s tournament (Hopkinton 5-4), but if you didn’t see the game, you wouldn’t have known the Pioneers were down 4-1 at one point.
“They’re a unique team. It took us about a period and change to adjust, and then we took over,” Gardner said. “We were playing our worst hockey of the year. We tied it up and then gave it away with about 75 seconds left.”
Even with the loss, Gardner said his team can learn from it.
“There were things that happened during that game that we really shined a light on negatively and fixed,” Gardner said.
When asked if Gardner will change anything now that his team is heading into the tournament, he said, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
“We put the season to bed – positives and negatives. We talked about what can hurt us and where to play to our strengths,” Gardner said. “Now, with the pressure from the tournament, we’ve been telling the guys to ‘lean into the pressure – don’t allow it to make you play worse, but rather, embrace it.’”
Yes, the postseason comes with pressure, but Lynnfield has been playing with pressure all season long.
“When you’re sitting at 16-0, there’s a little pressure to try and keep winning, so we’ve been playing with it this season,” Gardner said.
That said, pressure or no pressure, his excitement for round one increases every day.
“Wednesday can’t get here soon enough,” Gardner said. “It’s exciting, kind of all-encompassing. I think my guys can’t wait for Wednesday night and get it going.”
Last year, Lynnfield lost in the semifinals to No. 1 Marlborough 3-2 despite having to play on one day’s rest. Now the No. 2 seed in the state tournament, the Pioneers are looking to go a few steps further.
Lynnfield will host Foxborough Wednesday night at McVann-O’Keefe Rink with puck-drop scheduled for 7:50 p.m.
