RallyNorth.net

Wed, Jan 30, 2008 05:15 PM @ Peabody

Team	1	2	3	Final
Beverly	1	0	0	1
Peabody	1	1	1	3

Peabody hockey qualifies for state tourney

Wednesday, January, 30 By Jean DePlacido
Staff writer

PEABODY | Coming off its worst loss of the season, the Peabody High hockey team felt an urgency to get back on track. But it knew the job wasn't going to be easy against a Beverly team that had beaten the Tanners last month.

The Tanners got solid goaltending from senior Jonathan Camara, a pair of goals from the second line, and the game winner from first line right wing James Noftle to pick up their 10th win of the season, 3-1, and qualify for the state tournament. Peabody senior defenseman Pat Yeo was all over the ice, racing to get to loose pucks and turn the play back up the ice.

"Beverly is very tough defensively and blocked a lot of our shots, but we did a good job fighting through it," said Peabody coach Mark Leonard, whose team is 10-4 with six games remaining. "Bob Gilligan (Beverly coach) does a nice job and his team always works hard and sticks to their system. We were coming off a bad game against Revere (7-1 loss) and this was a very good win."

Sophomore Andrew Bucci put the Tanners on the board with less than two minutes gone in the game. Panther goalie C. J. Cacciatore denied Mike Broughton's bid, but the rebound came right out front to Bucci, who had an open net and cashed in. Beverly answered with a similar goal when Tom Berube jammed in a rebound under Camara's pads.

Camara, who made 14 saves, came up with two gems in the final minutes of the period. He stopped Chris Bushey's shot from the high slot and then denied Kyle Irving on the rebound. The Panthers threatened to take the lead with seconds left in the period when Bushey broke in alone but freshman defenseman Eric Muise hustled back to bother him enough to make the shot go just wide.

While the first period was even, Peabody began to dominate the middle period against an undermanned Panther squad that was missing several injured players, including senior sharpshooter Jack Leathersich, who is done for the year with a broken ankle.

"We are down in numbers with a whole line missing | we're basically going with two lines and three defensemen, but that is no excuse," said Gilligan. "We have to regroup and work hard to make the tournament. We sat back in the second period and they took it to us. They have the numbers and they moved the puck well."

The lone goal in the middle period turned out to be the game winner. It came at 10:09 when Elijah Cohen fired the puck from the blueline to James Noftle, who was all alone in front of Cacciatore and beat him with a nifty backhand shot into the upper corner.

"Elijah and I have been playing together for three years and we know where we are going to be," said Noftle, who is only one point behind Cohen for the scoring lead with 30. "This was a huge game for us. We wanted to get our game back up to the way we played against Gloucester (a 7-1 win) and getting on the board right away was huge.

"Our first goal was to make the tournament and we've done that. Now we can't let down because we want to get the highest seed possible."

Beverly came out fired up at the start of the third period and tested Camara in the early going but couldn't slip one by him. After that Peabody kept pressuring until A. J. Parker put in a rebound for a big insurance tally with 5:29 remaining.

"Our second line was excellent," said Leonard. "Both goals by them came after turnovers in the corner caused by our forechecking. Matt Rodgers set up that first score and didn't even get an assist, although he probably should have. Zack Brown's forecheck led to Parker's the goal, which was very important because anything can happen in a one goal game.

"We opened up the ice and made the most of our chances. Camara made some great saves when he had to. In the first period we had too many turnovers in our end, but we protected the puck much better in the second and third periods. We did a good job with the lead."

Despite some obvious adversity, Gilligan's goal is for Beverly to make the state tourney. His team is 6-7-1 and he is glad he doesn't have a game on Saturday. That gives him time to get some players back before a makeup game against Methuen on Monday.

Meanwhile, Leonard knows his team will have its hands full on Saturday when Medford comes to town looking to avenge a 7-4 loss to Peabody.