PEABODY — The Lynnfield Pioneers boys hockey team saved its best for last Saturday at McVann-O’Keefe Memorial Rink – as in, literally, the last second in a wild and crazy ending.
Trailing by a goal and skating with a 6-on-3 advantage after pulling goaltender Aidan Kelly, senior captain Cooper Marengi threaded the needle from behind the net to fellow senior captain Joey Mack camped on the right side of the crease. Mack fired a bullet into the back of the net, top shelf, to not only beat Triton goaltender Ben Fougere, but beat the clock by a mere second to salvage a 2-2 tie.
A wild celebration ensued while the two officials briefly conferred, then confirmed, that the goal was good.
“We’ll take that point any day,” said Lynnfield coach Jon Gardner. “I think they (the Vikings) definitely felt they left a lot out there, especially with Aidan Kelly coming up with some big and key saves for us, but I felt that we did, too, as we had a ton of chances that we couldn’t finish. Overall, other than the first period, I felt we had more than enough chances to win the game, but we’ll take the tie considering the circumstances.”
The Pioneers got off to a slow start and played sluggishly throughout most of the first period, allowing Triton to dominate pace and possession. Kelly, however, was more than up to the task to keep Triton off the board With about five minutes to play, he made his biggest save, robbing Triton defenseman Tyler Godfrey who had fired a laser from the point into traffic.
With under a minute to go in the period, Marengi went down in a heap on the boards. Triton’s Joe Conte was flagged for holding, giving the Pioneers a power play for the rest of the period and another 1:39 at the start of the second, but could not break through.
The action picked up in the second period with both teams going back and forth.
At even strength with under six minutes to play, Marengi won a faceoff and dished to a wide-open Jack Hammersley, a junior, but his shot was off the mark, Triton countered with a full ice rush by Godfrey, but he was again robbed by Kelly. Lynnfield came right back up the ice. Hammersley slipped the puck back to junior assistant captain Jaret Simpson on the left point. He fired off a slapshot that got loose in the crease, but Marengi’s attempts to poke it home were denied by Fougere, who covered up the puck in heavy traffic.
Lynnfield finally broke the ice with 3:43 to go on a goal by DeRoche with assists going to senior captain Tyler Murphy and junior Mike Caruso to tie things up at 1-1.
With under three minutes in the period, Triton amped up the attack and put the pressure on Kelly. Godfrey had two good chances snuffed out by Kelly, then Conte was denied by a heavily screened Kelly on a shot from the left point. After Lynnfield cleared the puck out of the zone, Triton dumped it back in where Kelly covered up to force a faceoff from the left circle. Triton’s Connor Kohan won it, then walked in and found Kyle McKendry. His shot was saved, but the rebound popped out to Josh D’Arcy who slipped it past Kelly to give Triton a 1-0 lead at the 13:12 mark.
The third period got chippy on both sides with both teams getting burned by penalties.
Lynnfield could do no damage, however, on a power play about five and a half minutes into the period.
With 5:09 to play, Marengi was sent to the box for cross-checking, where he was joined a little more than a minute later by Simpson (elbowing), giving the Vikings a 5-on-3 advantage for 48 seconds. They needed just 36 seconds to cash in to regain the lead. Senior assistant captain Nekoroski took one for the team, blocking a shot by Godfrey. The puck ended up on the stick of Brady Lyndholm, partially open in the slot on the right side. Lyndholm declined taking the shot and threaded the needle to Sam Rennick camped just outside the crease on the left, who redirected the puck home to put Triton back on top, 2-1. Time of the goal was 11:48.
After that, things got interesting.
With 2:51 to go, Conte was sent to the penalty box. With 1:12 to go, matching penalties were assessed to each team, and Gardner pulled Kelly to take advantage of a 6-on-4 man up edge.
That edge turned into a 6-on-3 opportunity when Conte received double minors for cross-checking and slashing, giving the Pioneers a 3-man edge for the remaining 39 seconds of the game.
With Marengi, Mack, junior Will Garofoli, DeRoche, Murphy, and Robbie Brandano on the ice, the Pioneers survived an anxious few seconds when Triton’s Matt Duncan cleared the puck the length of the ice, missing the open net by a couple of feet.
The Pioneers worked the puck back into the offensive zone with under 20 seconds to go. As time wound down, Marengi spied Mack and put the puck right on his stick for the equalizer to stun the Vikings — and steal a point.
“We left our game in the locker room and had zero intensity, and quite honestly, were beyond flat in that first period, they started listening to us in the last two periods,” said Gardner. “That was a bang-bang play and we did get the benefit of a couple of really undisciplined penalties on their part in the third period. It was a tough decision on pulling the goalie because you don’t want to give away your chance for a point and sometimes that many skaters can crowd things, but they didn’t pack it in like I thought they would, and that left both guys (Marengi and Mack) open.
Gardner commended the play of junior Chris Flannery, Nekoroski and Garofoli.
“They were really buzzing around especially in the last two periods, so that helped everyone pick up their games.”