FILE PHOTO
Mike Clougherty was one of five Jets who scored goals for Lynn Saturday.
By GORDON VINCENT
LOWELL — After battling back from a 3-goal deficit, the Lynn Jets probably deserved to get at least a tie out of their game with Dracut on Saturday.
But Dracut’s Adam Berger snatched a point away from the Jets. Berger’s goal in a 5-on-3 power play with 3:01 left in the third period lifted the Middies to a 6-5 win, at Janas Rink. Lynn (10-5-3) played without starting goaltender Jack Stafford, who didn’t make the trip to Lowell due to illness. He was replaced by Kenny Perez, making his first career start in net.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve played a game without Jack,” Lynn coach Joe Conlon said. “Kenny is still learning the sport, and he was put in a tough situation today. But he’s not the reason we lost the game. We need to be more disciplined and stop taking unnecessary penalties.”
Dracut (6-11-3) scored three power play goals, including the aforementioned 5-on-3 winner by Berger, who recorded a hat trick for the Middies, as did linemate Jake Callery.
Five different players scored a goal for the Jets: Cody Roork, Travis Ryan, Sean Devin, Mike Clougherty and Kevin Morgan, who tied the game with 3:55 to go. Steve Patrie had a pair of assists for the Jets.
Callery wrapped his first two goals of the game around Berger’s first goal in a span of 6:27 in the opening period. The first two scores came on power plays.
At 4:29, a wrist shot from the top of the right circle by Callery beat Perez to his glove side, and at 6:51, Berger scored after a determined individual rush down the right wing. Callery added an even-strength goal at 10:56 when he whipped home a rebound from the right dot.
Roork got the Jets going just 36 seconds later when he collected a turnover in the neutral zone and beat Dracut goaltender Ryan Hardy with a high wrist shot, stick side.
Ryan closed Lynn’s gap to one goal when he scored 38 seconds into the second period, on a power play, with a shot from the right circle, again to Hardy’s stick side.
Callery notched the third goal of his hat trick at 6:09 of the second period.
He kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and whistled a wrist shot from the right dot over Perez’s shoulder. Lynn answered with a goal by Devin, whose wrist shot from the slot found the net after an initial save was made by Hardy. who after Lynn’s third goal was pulled for Fred Kazlaski.
The Jets tied the game at 4-4 when Clougherty scored four minutes into the third period, on a power play. Patrie’s shot from the right point was stopped by Kazlaski, but Cloughtery shoveled the rebound into the net.
Dracut regained the lead just 27 seconds later when Berger’s shot from the slot found the net over the glove of Perez, who had done well to save an initial shot by Nate Lapointe.
Morgan got the Jets back to even when he backhanded a rebound of his own shot past Kazlaski, but Berger scored what turned out to be the winner when his low shot from the left circle beat Perez just inside the far post.
Lynn’s best chance to tie the game again came on a shot from the point by Patrie with 1:40 left. The puck dribbled over Kazlaski’s shoulder toward the net, but it was cleared away by a defender.