Big Blue Hockey Drops Anchormen

The team took their time Monday afternoon, but persistence paid off in a 6-2 win over St. Clement’s.

Swampscott fired 16 shots at Anchormen goalie Sean Simas, but came away trailing 1-0 after one period on a goal by Sean Wrenn.

“We came out against a hot goalie, and we’ve seen that before,” coach said. “We told the guys to keep going to the net, and keep getting the puck on the net and good things will happen.”

The good things started to happen in the second period when the Blue finally broke through on Simas.  Gino Cresta pushed the puck in front of the net and Griffin Hunt knocked it in at 9:26.  Sophomore defenseman Chris Carman also picked up an assist on Hunt’s goal.

Twenty-five seconds after the Hunt goal, Trevor Massey put the Blue up 2-1 when he converted a pass from Chris Finlay. Freshman Nunzio Moretti also had a helper on the play, and Swampscott finally had the lead.

The lead lasted for just over three minutes before Kevin Flanagan got the equalizer for the Anchormen.

The Blue did a great job killing off a late penalty in the period, goalie Patrick Gavin came up with four big saves while Swampscott was shorthanded.

Heads were shaking on the ice and in the stands when the second period ended at 2-2. Swampscott’s shot total after the first two periods was 38, and Simas was standing on his head to keep the puck out.

“Sean usually has to make a lot of saves for us, a lot,” St. Clement’s coach Keith Wallace said. “We try for good coverage in the defensive zone to give him a look at the puck.”

“We were concerned a bit after the second period,” Faia said. “We told the guys to keep doing what they were doing, because we were playing well.”

The tide turned in the third for Swampscott, shots that wouldn’t go in in the first and second, were now finding the back of the net.

Moretti scored at 13:09 when he wrapped the puck around the net and snuck it in past Simas. Robert Serino and Chris Finlay set up Moretti.

Finlay got his own goal, with two St. Clement’s players in the penalty box, at the ten-minute mark.  Chris Carman picked up his second assist on the play.

Co-captain Gino Cresta iced the game with two unassisted goals late in the period.  The first came with just under seven minutes to play, the second a short-handed goal with 49 seconds left in the game.

Swampscott (3-6-0) and St. Clement’s (5-5-0) both played in the Deep Freeze tournament last December, that Swampscott won, but did not face each other.  The Catholic Conference Small league team finished in third place behind the Blue and Newton South, and ahead of East Boston.

“We played well against Peabody (a 4-1 loss Saturday) and that carried over today, we played hard and it’s good to get our first win of 2011.”

Swampscott hosts the Jets from East Boston Wednesday night at 6 at Salem State.