SALEM — The Beverly High hockey team is very young, but with each game — and each victory — the Panthers continue to gain confidence.
Beverly broke open a tight game with visiting Peabody on Saturday afternoon by scoring three times within a 31/2-minute span of the third period to win its fifth straight contest, 4-1, at the Rockett Arena.
The Panthers are now 9-5-1 and just one point away from qualifying for the Division 2 North state tournament. They tested Tanners netminder Joe Powers with 41 shots, but could only get one by him over the first 30 minutes of play.
"This was a tough one," said Peabody High head coach Mark Leonard after his team fell to 6-7-1 (6-6-1 in games that count toward qualifying for the tournament). "We're young and made a couple of mistakes that hurt. Joey played great in goal, but scoring goals has been a problem for us all year."
The Panthers clung to a 1-0 lead going into the final period, but if not for some huge stops by Powers, they could've easily been up by 4-5 more. Beverly had a 19-3 shot advantage in the middle period as Powers was under constant pressure. His best stop came with one minute remaining when he robbed Ryan Santo from point-blank range while sitting on the ice.
"Their goalie was great," said Panthers coach Bob Gilligan. "In that second period, he got his toe on the puck 3-4 times and was able to keep it a one-goal game. We weren't skating hard earlier and knew we had to pick up the intensity. We really needed this win."
It took Beverly just 20 seconds into the last period to make it 2-0 when senior captain Brenden Mitchell scored the first of his two goals, with Connor Irving and Ryan Santo assisting. Irving, a sophomore center, had a big game by figuring in all four scores with a goal and three assists.
"The coaches always tell us to go out and get a goal early; we had a lot of momentum at the start of the third period," Mitchell said. "We were able to get a lot of traffic in their end, and that helped a lot because their goalie was so tough."
Tanner sophomore Derek DeMild put his team on the board just 17 seconds after Mitchell's goal, spoiling the shutout bid by Beverly freshman goalie Tim Birarelli. DeMild snapped a wrister just under the crossbar, with Mike Vadala and Tommy Burns assisting to make it a 2-1 game.
But Beverly added two quick power-play goals by Irving and Mitchell to ensure the victory. Powers made the save of the game to rob Matt Hamor on a clean breakaway with six minutes left, but the damage had been done.
"Once we got hungry, that killer instinct kicked in, and we clung together," Gilligan said.
Leonard said he saw a lot of good things, but a few mistakes hurt. He praised Powers and senior defenseman David Ricci, who had an outstanding game in blocking three shots.
"Ricci works so hard all the time," Leonard said. "I thought Vadala had a good game, DeMild got a beautiful goal, and Ryan McManus and Nick Salalayko were solid on defense."
