SALEM — They may have gotten off to a slow start, but once the Marblehead Magicians (12-2-1) heated up, there was no not stopping them in a Sunday afternoon Northeastern Conference contest against Peabody-Saugus-Swampscott (3-9-1) at Rockett Arena, won by Marblehead 6-0.
For nearly seven minutes, the game was scoreless. But Marblehead lit the lamp three times over the final eight minutes of the first period and struck again about two minutes into the middle period to put PSS in a 4-0 hole, from which it never recovered.
“We had not been moving the puck as well as we’d like to, so I was happy with that,” said Marblehead coach Mark Marfione. “They started using each other and playing more of a team game, so that was nice.”
PSS had a glimmer of hope with a nearly four-minute man-up advantage late in the second period that spilled into the third, but Marblehead’s penalty-kill unit snuffed any hopes PSS may have had of getting back in the game.
“Our penalty kill unit has been pretty good all year,” Marfione said. “They killed it the way we want them to with the forwards being responsible and taking away the shot from the D-men. They really bore down and it was good to see that.”
“That was a little bit disappointing,” said PSS coach Jason Marshall. “We’re just not working with each other with a lot of individual play. We have some guys with a lot of talent, but sometimes, guys think they need to do a little bit too much. It was just unfortunate we had to come out like this.”
For Marblehead, ranked No. 5 in Division 3, Kyle Hart had a monster game with two goals and three assists, while Hayden Gallo and Crew Monaco finished with one goal and two assists each.
London McDonald (goal, assist) put Marblehead on top, 1-0, at the 6:46 mark of the first period with assists going to Jimmy Ryan and Noah Feingold. A minute-and-a-half later, Gallo (from Hart and James MacKenzie) doubled the lead to 2-0. With 13 seconds left in the period, Hart made it a 3-0 game (from Gallo and Monaco), flicking a shot from the slot under the crossbar to beat PSS goalie Dom Pappalardo.
What may have been the prettiest goal of the contest came a little more than two minutes into the second period when both teams were down a man. Hart and McDonald broke out on a two-one-one. Hart flicked it to McDonald, who drew out Pappalardo, then slipped it back to Hart, who buried it. Monaco also picked up an assist.
Marblehead closed with third-period goals from Monaco (from Hart and Gallo) and Drew DePhillips (from Hart and Andrew Watson).
Marfione gave a shoutout to Hart.
“Kyle had a really good game. He’s our captain and the team goes the way he goes. He has really good vision and is just moving the puck more using his teammates,” Marfione said. “He did a really good job of that today.”
Despite surrendering six goals, Marshall had high praise for Pappalardo, defenseman Ryan Lockhart, and forward Brandon Barone. Truth be told, Pappalardo was under fire for most of the game, finishing with 29 saves.
“He’s been phenomenal for us all year. Today, we gave up a lot of really good chances and Dom kind of kept us in there, but it gets to the point where a goalie can only do so much,” Marshall said. “He hasn’t had a ton of playing time this season, but he played really well today. And Brandon was flying around the ice and battling all game. He gave it a good fight. I don’t want to take away from all the guys because they all worked hard.”
The game had significant ramifications on both sides.
For No. 40 Peabody, the loss derailed hopes of qualifying for the Division 1 tournament.
“We needed to win out, starting with this game,” Marshall said. “I keep telling the kids that every time we go out there, we have to play for the seniors who have limited hockey left, so everyone needs to do whatever it takes to finish the season.”
For Marblehead, the win sets up an important game against Winthrop this Wednesday at home (7:30 p.m.), which could bring Marblehead closer to top-dog status in the NEC. Results were too late to print.
“They beat us 3-1 last time. It will be significant in the league and if we want first place in the league, it’s a big game,” Marfione said. “We have one league loss and they have one tie, so if we can beat them, we’ll be in pretty good standing in the league.”
While Marblehead is currently ranked No. 5 in the Division 3 power rankings, Marfione said he feels the strength of Marblehead’s schedule isn’t as strong as last year, but he’s not worried about the rankings.
“We just need to keep playing our game and getting the results we want,” he said. “We just hope we can stay up there and get two home tournament games like we did last year. We just need to do our jobs.”
Peabody is back at home against Everett on Saturday (7 p.m.).