PEABODY — Physical, fast-paced, up-and-down hockey was the ticket Saturday at McVann O’Keefe Rink between defending Division 1 state champion St. Mary’s and Peabody/Lynnfield/North Reading.
Each team had the lead – and lost the lead. Trailing, 3-2, with a little less than nine minutes remaining, PLNR’s Daniella White netted the equalizer on a power play.
Both sides had chances to go ahead the rest of the way, but couldn’t break through with the game ending in a 3-3 draw after overtime.
There was some drama at the end, however. With one minute remaining, the Spartans were caught in a line change and penalized for too many players on the ice. Thirty seconds later, PLNR’s Ava Buckley collected a loose puck in the slot and had an open look, but her shot missed the mark, sending both teams home with a point.
St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca and PLNR coach Michelle Roach agreed that, while each team made mistakes they hope to clean up, the game was hard-fought and felt more like a tournament game.
“It was a physical game, but a clean game,” Pagliuca said. “It was a little sloppy at times with turnovers here and there on both sides. The game just ebbed and flowed that way with two pretty even teams. We had some mistakes, but the intensity and the energy level were there. It was a hard, physical game and that’s all you want – a tournament-like game in December.”
“It really didn’t feel like a December game; it felt more like what you get at the end of the season,” Roach said. “It could have gone either way. We had some chances and they had some chances. We had a couple little breakdowns that we need to fix, but to play this strongly just three games in is really positive. St. Mary’s is well-coached, so I was happy with the way we came out.”
After 11 minutes of scoreless action, things heated up late in the first period. St. Mary’s Emma Gustin opened the scoring with about four minutes remaining. She raced past a defenseman and broke in alone on PLNR goalie Alyse Mutti, scoring on the backhand.
With less than two minutes left in the period, Peabody caught lightning in a bottle, netting two goals to take a 2-1 lead. Ava Buckley (from Erin Dee) got things started with some fancy stickwork, beating Spartans’ goalie Megan Donato to make it 1-1.
“What was really great is we’ve been working on not jumping at the first opening, but to open up the shot you want to take,” Roach said. “Ava had a ton of patience waiting for the shot.”
Forty seconds later, Mia Lava took a feed from Shirley Whitmore and blasted it by Donato to put PLNR on top.
“Mia was in a perfect position in the circle right near the seam,” Roach said.
PLNR held an edge in shots in the second period, but it was St. Mary’s Alyssa Norden who found paydirt, tying the game, 2-2, three minutes in. Teammate Emma Doucette followed, beating Mutti high to give the Spartans a 3-2 lead with 12:22 to play in the third period.
Five minutes later, PLNR answered with the aforementioned power play goal. White took a feed from Chloe Gromko at the top of the faceoff circle and blasted a wrister under the crossbar to tie the game.
Pagliuca said the too-many-players penalty was a miscommunication.
“Hopefully, that won’t happen again because that’s just giving a good team a chance to win it at the end,” he said. “That’s on me,”
He praised the play of Norden and freshman Cam Driscoll (both of Peabody) along with Norden’s first-line mates, Doucette and Kiera Twomey.
“Alyssa was great – probably our best player on the ice today,” he said. “She was everywhere; she was active. Our first line really carried the play. Cam had a strong game, but we have to play better in the defensive zone. We turned the puck over, so that’s something we’ll look at.”
Roach said that while she never wants to give up a lead, there was a silver lining.
“The good thing that came out of that was they had to come back, and they did. We knew what we had to do and tied it up,” she said. “They kept pushing and shooting and, finally, we broke through.”
Roach highlighted the play of Buckley, Dee, Eleni Spack, Vanessa Steinmeyer, Lava, Julia Guzzo, and Gromko.
