By DAN ZIMMERMAN
LOWELL — To borrow a lyric from a 1959 song by Dinah Washington, “What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours.”
Last Sunday evening, the North Reading Hornets hockey team returned to Tsongas Arena to continue their participation in the 2021 Lowell Holiday Tournament. A day earlier, Danvers dealt the Hornets a crushing 5-0 defeat to open the season. While Danvers ultimately moved on to claim the championship hardware with yet another shutout, 6-0, over host Lowell, the Hornets faced Matignon in the consolation game.
The Hornets took out their collective frustrations, and then some, pounding Matignon. After yielding a shorthanded goal on the first power play of the night, North Reading went on a tangent, reeling off six unanswered goals in a 6-1 rout.
It was a treat for many of the North Reading faithful, some who made the trip to Tsongas for both games.
“Game one was a new experience for a lot of these kids who had yet to touch varsity ice,” said Coach Brian McAuliffe, now 1-1 on the new season. “After last season being a little bit different with just league play and all the restrictions, it was nice to get out there in a big venue like this and come out of it with a win against a historically strong Matignon team.”
Historically, perhaps, but the current version of Matignon hockey is seriously undermanned, dressing only a dozen players and a goalie. Still, it only takes one crafty skater to make a difference and in this instance, it was Allan White, on a feed from Matt Poirier, to put the Warriors in front, on a shorthanded tally with only 1:24 elapsed in the contest.
“Numbers are down,” said McAuliffe. “That’s how it is in high school hockey right now. But Matignon has some good players and in the early minutes, we had to be alert.”
The Hornets recaptured the lead with back-to-back goals near the end of the first. On a nice feed from Matt Young, Andrew Daley polished off a two-on-one break with a one-timer between the wickets of Matignon netminder Dillon Yelmokas.
Two minutes later, Vincent Pastore skimmed a floater from the blue line that was tipped by Andrew Peppe. Brendan Rooney also figured in the go-ahead goal.
While North Reading peppered Yelmonas with 19 second period bids, Hornet starting goalie Sam Elliot didn’t see a single shot. The North Reading defense was unforgiving in the zone.
“While we have some really talented forwards, our defense will be logging a lot of minutes,” shared McAuliffe. “We expect great things from Matt Ryan, Joe Collins, Max Forristall, and Cole Lopilato.”
Lopilato is a first-year senior with North Reading and will likely have a hand in an awful lot of scoring as the season progresses. He played his underclassman hockey with St. John’s Prep, followed by a stint in the juniors, before joining the Hornets.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of that,” said McAuliffe, when Lopilato’s end-to-end rush was mentioned. “He has a special skill set. He makes one move and he’s going to be gone. His defensive assignment is one of our strategies as we explained to the centermen. We welcome defensemen like Cole to move up ice and use their skills.”
North Reading featured balanced scoring, with goals from six different skaters. In the middle frame, Thomas Gazda made it 3-0 with a helper from Matt Ryan, Daley added insurance with his second, from Collins, and Landon Phillips put it out of Matignon’s reach, 5-0, knocking in a rebound following Lopilato’s brilliant rush.
“Our one-two-three lines are pretty even,” said McAuliffe. “It is a well-balanced attack and we had some of the younger guys stepping up and getting on the scoresheet. Three guys had the first goals of their careers and that’s always fun to see.”
With the game in hand, McAuliffe sent in goalie Blake McMeniman for the third and he turned aside 5 bids.
Facing a physically exhausted Matignon group in the third, North Reading eased up but not until Dean Rooney added a sixth goal, on a pass from Phillips.
“I think that was part of the theme, to wear them down,” said McAuliffe. “We have a lot of depth and we executed. Our strength is our physicality and I’m proud of the way we put it to good use tonight.”
North Reading hosted Pentucket on Wednesday night (results in after press time) and will travel to Endicott College to face Hamilton-Wenham on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.