PEABODY — In what Peabody-Lynnfield-North Reading girls hockey coach Michelle Roach described as a “fast, hard-fought, physical” game, an undermanned PLNR squad found a way to win Monday afternoon, defeating visiting Falmouth, 2-1, in a non-league contest.
Mia Lava scored the eventual game-winning goal on a power play about five minutes into the second period.
PLNR (8-1-1) ran only two lines due to the fact that several players were unavailable due to illness. As a result, Roach said she had to juggle to fill the missing positions.
“They were tired,” she said. “The big thing was we fought through adversity. We had different lines out there that looked much different, especially playing Falmouth (6-4), which is a very good team. I think they’re ranked fourth in their division and we also knew it was going to be a much different game than the first time we played them – the 4-0 game. They are a strong team, so getting on the board early and then getting the power-play goal was big. We had breakdowns, but that’s the nature of playing two lines and they were tired. It’s been a long couple of weeks with a lot of illnesses. That was a gritty performance today.”
Falmouth coach Brian Ferreira said his team didn’t quit.
“We had a good third period,” he said. “We came out hard, but just couldn’t get that one bounce we needed.”
Chloe Gromko (unassisted) staked PLNR to a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the first period. Alexa Pepper doubled the lead to 2-0 at the 11:04 mark of the second period. Camped alone just outside of the crease on the left side, she tapped home a Lava rebound. Mikaela O’Driscoll was also credited with an assist.
Five minutes later, it was Falmouth’s Riley Devlin’s turn to be in the right place at the right time, tipping home a Maeve Turner rebound to cut the deficit to 2-1. Casey Roth set up the shot, wrapping around from the back of the net to find Turner.
Falmouth came out firing in the third and had PNLR pinned in its end for the first five minutes. PLNR regrouped and had several quality chances, but couldn’t convert.
“After they scored that goal, they had a little momentum, so they came pushing in the third period,” Roach said. “In the locker room, we talked about it. We reset. We have a very strong D-corps and a very strong goalie, so being able to have that as an anchor for the team – especially when we are fighting a bit with things looking a little different – is what we are doing to bring that consistency and stability.”
With 3:35 left, PLNR caught a huge break when Falmouth’s Reagan Ferreira was hit with a tripping penalty. Brian Ferreira said the penalty delayed Falmouth’s ability to pull goaltender Raelynn Spellman until the clock was wound down to about a minute.
“We had to wait until we were even (strength) because of that penalty and I still don’t know what it was for,” Brian Ferreira said. “And then we didn’t get a whistle I think for the last three minutes, so we couldn’t get anything set up to get her out of the net.”
PLNR goalie Alyse Mutti finished with 18 saves.
Roach highlighted the strong play of Pepper, freshman Sydney Zizza, Gromko, and defenseman Leah Buckley, who made a “huge” play late in the game, as well as defensemen Maura Flaws, O’Driscoll, and Eleni Spack.
“We basically had to play five D and two lines. This was a very defensive-type game, which showcased some of the depth we have,” Roach said. “We were getting shots to net, but I was surprised we couldn’t get anything to break through. We got close a bunch of times where we had some good passes in front of the net with a shot and then a rebound. Falmouth clogged up the front of the net a lot, so we were trying not to get so deep in the zone to get at some of those pucks.”
PLNR’s next game is Wednesday against Medford at LoConte Memorial Ice Rink where it hopes to complete a season sweep. The two teams last met in December when PLNR won a 6-1 rout.
