PEABODY — Creating scoring opportunities is one thing. It’s what you do with them that can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Such was the case Saturday at McVann O’Keefe Ice Rink in the Lynnfield boys hockey team’s 3-1 loss to visiting King Philip Regional of Division 1.
The Pioneers had a chance to blow the game wide open in the first period, thanks to slew of Warrior penalties that gave the Pioneers a man-up advantage for the final seven minutes of the period. In the middle of it all, the Pioneers also enjoyed a two-man advantage for nearly a minute-and-a-half, only to come up empty and send the teams into the locker room tied at 0-0.
The Warriors flipped the script in the second period, cashing in three of four power plays in a seven-and-a-half minute span to put Lynnfield in a 3-0 hole. While Lynnfield’s Will Norton cut the lead down to 3-1 late in the period, that was as close as the hosts would come in this one.
“The talking point, always, is winning the special teams battle,” said Lynnfield coach Jon Gardner. “We’ve moved some of our personnel around and have changed some of our structure, but we have too many skill guys to not capitalize. It’s just not crisp enough; it’s not decisive enough. The tempo and pace of our power play is there’s just too much standing around with too much thinking. We’ve been talking about it, we just need to fix it as in no way, shape, or form can that group of guys who are that skilled with that many opportunities not have three power play goals.”
Early on, the action was back and forth for the most part with the Pioneers giving as good as they got. An elbowing penalty just two minutes into the second period opened the door for the Warriors. Evan Regan needed only six seconds to beat Pioneer goalie Angelo Covino with a wrist shot through traffic that trickled across the goal line. The Warriors kept their foot on the gas with power play goals from Rowan Bulger and Sam Naggar over the next six minutes to lead 3-0.
Norton broke the ice with a power play goal from Tim Sullivan and Joe Raffa at the 14:17 mark.
“That was a charity goal. The ref dropped the puck when they (Warriors) weren’t ready for the faceoff,” Gardner said.
Gardner said he was just as disappointed with the Pioneers’ penalty kill.
“Our PK is a source of pride for us, but we didn’t come together and kill those off,” he said. “We watched tape on them and we told them what they were going to do. They put pucks to the net and that’s what they did. We just didn’t block them and that was inexcusable.”
Lynnfield had plenty of chances to narrow the gap in the final period with three power play chances (bringing the total to 10 for the game) as well as a man-up edge after Gardner pulled goalie Michael Marenghi with 2:36 to go in the game.
“It was very frustrating. We had every belief that we could get the game into a nailbiter situation,” Gardner said. “You have to start thinking about it (pulling the goalie) at about the four-minute mark when you’re two goals down. We had chances that we created in the slot on rebounds. We just didn’t bang them home. Five-on-five, they really had nothing on us. We had three two-on-ones that we didn’t convert – you’ve got to finish.”
Gardner felt Nick Kelter and Jaret Scoppettuolo had good games.
“Nick had a stronger game and Jaret was really good,” Gardner said. “(Jaret) is very long and stays low. He’s good at keeping the puck on his stick and getting our offense going. He also had a strong game today.”
Covino and Marenghi split time in goal with each playing about a period-and-a-half.
“We have a two-headed dragon in those two, so it had nothing to do with Angelo, but when you’re down 3-0, you’ve got to change things up,” Gardner said.
While Lynnfield fell to .500 at 2-2, Gardner isn’t worried.
Warriors’ coach Toby Carlow was well known to Gardner, having played hockey at UMass Boston with Gardner’s twin brother and assistant coach, Jay Gardner.
“He (Carlow) won a state championship at Medfield and that’s what we wanted as we pulled a tournament schedule together. We know we were going to have way more losses, so it’s just a question of how you are going to improve after that,” Jon Gardner said.
The Pioneers’ next game is Tuesday against Hanover at 10 a.m. in the Boston Latin Christmas Tournament at Murphy Skating Rink in South Boston.
