FILE PHOTO
Peabody’s Tim January will serve as a captain for the Tanners this season.
By JOHN MADIGAN
The Peabody boys hockey team opened its preseason last weekend with a pair of scrimmages. On Sunday, the Tanners got their first look at the competition in the Northeastern Conference at the NEC Jamboree at Salem State University’s Rockett Arena and came up short to the Lynn Jets, 2-1.
The Tanners led 1-0 on a first period goal by Cam Anderson, but the Jets rallied with power play goals by Brian Clougherty and Jon Kosmas, who netted the game-winner.
Peabody coach Mark Leonard said the Tanners have a lot of room for improvement.
“We need a better effort, first off, and then we have to play better positionally,” he said. “A lot of the things we did wrong were related to effort. We need to play with more of a sense of urgency.”
This year’s team is dominated by 12 seniors. Unfortunately, most of them are short on significant varsity experience, forcing Leonard to also look to underclassmen to help pick up the slack left by the departure of last year’s top scorer Owen Brewster.
Last year, Brewster helped lead the Tanners to a 12-4-4 record and the No. 4 seed in the Division 2 North tournament, where they were upended in overtime by Masconomet, 4-3, in the first round.
“Every year the first goal is to make the tournament, second, is to win the league and compete for the state championship,” said Leonard.
The Tanners have a strong core of seniors that has been a staple in the program over the past few years under Leonard, led by captains Tim January, Chris Gillen, Nick Merryman, and goaltender Aaron McDonnell.
January, an athletic 6’2 defenseman who earned NEC all-star honors last year, will lead the defensive unit that includes senior Zachary Rich and junior Zack deFreitas. Filling in the holes on defense will be seniors Devin Doucette and Sal Zarro, junior Jack McKelvey, and sophomore Mike Sabino. This group will look to replicate last year’s dominance in penalty killing.
Last season, the Tanners were strong when it came to killing penalties, denying their opponents 87 out of 90 times.
Offensively, Leonard is hopeful that Gillen and Merryman will step up in their numbers.
“Everyone is going to have to chip in,” said Leonard who anticipates having multiple forwards become regular goal scorers rather than just one or two guys. “We’re struggling in scoring so we just need to get more shots on, more pucks to the net, and more bodies in front,” added Leonard.
As good as the penalty kill unit was last year, the opposite was true for the Tanners’ power play, which scored only one out of every five man-up opportunities.
Like most teams in the NEC, Leonard assumes that they may end up playing only two-and-a-half lines throughout the year, as depth and consistency is uncertain at this time.
However, reliability is not an issue for the Tanners in net with McDonnell returning for his senior year. In addition to McDonnell, Peabody has a dependable backup goalie in senior Connor Christman who made some flashy saves against Lynn at Sunday’s NEC Jamboree.
“If there is one area we are strong it’s goaltending with Aaron, a two-year all star,” Leonard said.
Speaking of the NEC, Leonard expects conference matchups will be real “dog fights” again this season.
Leonard believes Peabody matches up well in the conference for the most part, but he expects Winthrop, Swampscott, Marblehead, and Danvers to be very strong.
The Tanners open this season Dec. 21 when they travel to Winthrop to take on the Vikings.
“Dec. 21 is the first day of league play,” Leonard said. “I tried to get some non-league games, but couldn’t so while it’s a very late start, we can use that time as we have a lot of things to work on. We have speed, great goaltending, and have a lot of talent, but we are thin on defense and need to work on our power play.”