Schools
Header Hockey Hands Salem a Lump of Coal Wednesday Night
The Marblehead High School boys' hockey team wasn't at their best last night, but they were still able to hang a 5-1 loss on Salem at the Rockett Arena.
boys’ hockey team kept rolling, improving to 2-0-1 on the season after Wednesday night’s 5-1 win over the Salem Witches.
The Headers haven’t lost a hockey game since last January, when they fell to Danvers, and despite last night’s win, head coach Bob Jackson knows the team has to play better moving forward.
“One of the things we talked about with the team is mental toughness, we know we’re working with 14 to 18-year-old kids, but the effort has to be there,” Jackson said. “If another team comes out and outworks us, like Salem did in the start, and when they cut it to 3-1, we’re going to have some trouble.”
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The two teams were even until Salem’s Dan Tsivin was whistled off for holding in the first period. Marblehead got their first shot of the game on the ensuing power play, and it landed behind Salem goalie Brett Harring at 5:06. Austin Haley scored his fifth goal of the season off a dish from Ian Maag.
Maag scored his first goal of the season, to go with seven assists to make it 2-0 with 8:57 left in the first period. Maag’s eighth point of the year came when he tipped in a shot from the right point by Liam Gillis.
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“We knew Salem was going to come out and play hard, and they did, and we weren’t ready for it early on, but if a team works hard good things will happen for them and Salem was hanging in there,” Jackson said.
The two teams went toe-to-toe in the second period, and it looked like Salem was going to head into the second intermission down by two until Trevor Jones circled out in front of the net and roofed a backhander over Harring’s blocker with 31 seconds left in the period to make it 3-0 Marblehead. It was Jones’ first point of the season.
Salem (0-4-0) cut the lead to 3-1 when Paul DiMarino busted down the right wing and used line mate Matt Jalbert as a screen and slid one by Mike Harper with 8:23 left in the game. Brian Shaw set up DiMarino.
With the Witches coming in off a loss to Lowell Tuesday, and Marblehead fresh off a solid 3-3 tie with Division One Newton North, things were a little too hairy for the Marblehead faithful filling the Rockett Arena stands.
DiMarino’s goal came after Salem spent much of the third period icing the puck, and it woke up Marblehead, who scored two quick goals to seal a 5-1 victory.
Healey scored his second of the game, moving out from behind the Salem net and slamming one along the ice past Harring with 5:03 left to play. Dean Fader picked up his first assist of the year on Healey’s sixth of the season.
Marblehead’s Will Hughes closed out the scoring with his first goal of 2011-2012, Peyton Jancsy and Matt Cashman picked up their first points of the year setting up Hughes.
Marblehead is in action next Monday at 8 p.m. against the Fishermen in the Gloucester Holiday Tournament. The Triton Vikings and Beverly Panthers are also in the tournament next week.
“We’ll know pretty soon if the things we talk about with the kids sink in, we’ve got tough games against Gloucester, Beverly and Triton next week, and we’ve got to get our act together in the next couple of days,” Jackson said.
“All three teams we’ll see in next week’s Christmas Tournament are better than the teams we’ve seen so far this year, so we’ve got to play better.”
