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Jets goalie Jack Stafford made 29 saves but Lynn fell, 4-0, on Wednesday night.
By MIKE ALONGI
NEWBURYPORT — Sometimes, all it takes is one bad stretch of play to let a game get away from a team. That’s exactly what happened to the Lynn Jets boys hockey team on Wednesday, as it gave up three goals in a five-minute span and fell to the Pentucket Sachems, 4-0, in the Gulazian Division final of the Newburyport Bank Classic at Graf Rink.
John Orlando had two goals and two assists for the Sachems, while Keegan Comeau had one goal and two assists and Brendan Lincoln scored one goal. Goalie Anthony Orlando had an impressive 31 saves in the shutout win.
“It wasn’t our greatest performance out there tonight,” said Lynn coach Joe Conlon. “We lost our composure after giving up that first goal and it was downhill from there.”
Things were going well for Lynn to start the game. The Jets were playing a physical style of hockey and dominating puck possession, getting plenty of shots on Anthony Orlando. But all that changed in the final five minutes of the period.
With 5:15 to go in the first, fresh off a penalty kill, the Sachems were able to get the puck into the Lynn zone and draw Jets goalie Jack Stafford (29 saves) out of the net. Comeau took a pass from John Orlando and caught Stafford too far from the net and slipped past him for an easy goal to put Pentucket on the board.
Two minutes later, Pentucket made the Jets pay for sloppy puck possession in their own zone when John Orlando knocked the puck loose, Comeau scooped it up and fired a perfect pass to Lincoln in the slot. Lincoln made a quick move and fired a shot past Stafford to make it 2-0.
The Jets were victimized by more bad puck play in their own zone just before the end of the period. This time, it was Comeau who knocked the puck loose and sent a pass over to John Orlando, who buried a wrist shot in the top-left corner of the net to make it 3-0 with less than a minute to go in the first.
“We gave up that first one and started feeling sorry for ourselves, and that led to two more,” said Conlon. “When you feel bad for yourself in a game like that, it’s going to get worse, and it did.”
The Jets came out strong again in the second period, continuing their physical style of play, but they still couldn’t break through. Anthony Orlando was a brick wall in net, stopping 12 shots alone in the second.
The story was the same for Lynn in the third period, and John Orlando was able to tally one more goal with three and a half minutes left to seal the win for Pentucket.
With the regular season now over, the Jets (11-6-3) now await their seeding in the Division 3 North tournament and take a look at things to improve on.
“We’ll take a look at everything, but if we’re still learning lessons in Game No. 20 that’s not good,” said Conlon. “We’ve got to get better or we’re not going to last long in the tournament.”
The MIAA hockey tournament seedings will be announced on Saturday.