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Coming off of its best win of the season | an 8-0 pounding of Rockport last Saturday | Salem plays its final game of the regular season tonight at home on Senior Night. The Witches (5-14) would love nothing better than to end their season with a two-game winning streak while at the same time ending Pope John's (7-8-3) dreams of a postseason berth.

Playing its best game of the season, the Witches got a goal and four assists from senior defenseman and captain Chris Smith in hammering Rockport, 8-0, Saturday night at the Talbot Rink in Gloucester.

Freshman Chris McLeod picked an opportunistic time to score his first goal of the season, stuffing home Alex Whitmore's pass in a 3-1 Marblehead victory over Salem that earned the Magicians a ticket to the state hockey tournament.

Senior Brendon Hambleton scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season to help Swampscott shut out host Salem, 4-0, at the Rockett Arena.

Junior Conor Barton had 13 saves for his second shutout this winter (and the team's fourth) for the victorious Big Blue (10-4-3).

Salem's Stan Goodwin hasn't seen much time between the pipes throughout his hockey career. In fact, the sophomore just moved to the position fulltime at the start of this season. That didn't stop him from taking control last night at Rockett Arena, as he stopped 10 shots in relief of Cody Grondin to lead the Witches over Lynn, 2-1, and earn his first varsity win.

First half analysis: A young, inexperienced with a new head coach has taken its lumps as they adjust to a new system. The loss of one of their few veterans, Justin Engdahl, for the season to injury hasn't helped as the Witches have been shut out in five of their 11 games.

Josh Salah admits he "hates" being forced to watch from the sidelines, but takes solace in the fact he should be able to return before season's end.

For Justin Engdahl, however, there is no such solace to be found. His season is definitely finished, so he must find other ways to remain positive.

Salem High hockey coach Brian Addesa is still looking for his team to put a 45-minute effort together. He'll surely take the dominating effort his Witches provided in the first and third periods last night en route to a 3-2 win over Rockport at Salem State College's Rockett Arena.

The Witches (1-5) jumped out to a surprising 1-0 lead on a goal by Nick Jalbert 45 seconds into the game, but visiting Gloucester was too strong and scored six unanswered goals the rest of the way to knock off the Witches, 6-1, at Rockett Arena in Salem.

Though it was a loss, the Salem High hockey team gathered a lot of momentum from its contest against Winthrop last Saturday night. Last night, they were able to parlay it into their first victory of the season, a 2-0 triumph over Marblehead (0-3).