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Central extends streak

Monday, January, 31 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — A little more than a month ago, the Central Catholic hockey team was just trying to reach the .500 mark. With the postseason on the horizon, however, the Raiders appear much more optimistic about their future.

Central won its eighth consecutive match last night, ending Tewksbury’s six-game winning streak with a 6-1 rout at the Valley Forum. During their run, the Raiders (10-3) have outscored their opponents by a combined 38-11.

Central put its mark on the game early in each of the opening two periods, scoring goals in the opening two minutes.

“This has been a great rival game,” said Central Catholic coach Mike Jankowski, who’s club lost three consecutive before hitting its stride. “(Tewksbury) has a great record (11-3), but we got the upper hand. We got a couple early (goals), and it gave us momentum and it carried forward.”

Nick Leonard put the Raiders ahead for good when he took a pass from Josh Gallagher then split defenders and went down the slot for his seventh goal of the season 1:51 into the match. The Raiders made it 2-0 with 9:41 left in the first on a nice pass by Michael Kelleher from behind the net to Tommy Evangelista in the crease, who recorded his ninth goal of the year.

Central completely took the Redmen out of the game with a four-goal second period, which featured two scores by Kevin Poulin. Josh Gallagher and Nicholas Pelrine also found the back of the net. Pelrine’s goal was indicative of how things are going for the Raiders, coming off a shot by Jacob Donahue that caromed off the glass behind the net and landed in front of Pelrine, who knocked it home as time expired in the frame.

The Raiders also excelled on penalty killing, stifling the Redmen on each of their six opportunities, while allowing Tewksbury only nine shots on goal in those situations.

“Penalty killing has been great,” Jankowski said. “There’s a bunch of different units and people involved, and these guys really answered the call today.”

Kevin Williams stopped all 19 shots he faced over the first two periods before giving way to Andrew Diduca, who gave up a cheap goal on a shot by Frank Mazzei from the right wing that bounced four times before reaching DiDuca.

“He’s the backbone,” Jankowski said of Williams, who has been the winning goalie in each of Central’s past nine wins. “He’s really kept us in the thick of things. We’ve played some really good periods, but when we’ve come up short a period or two here or there, he’s answered the call.”