By DAN ZIMMERMAN
PEABODY — Early last week, North Reading ice hockey coach Brian McAuliffe received a disturbing email from the scrooges at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association. It was the gift that keeps on giving.
It seems the one-game suspension handed down to Hornet skaters Duncan Gulino and Max Forristall for their extracurricular activities in Rockport two weeks ago just wasn’t sufficient. The MIAA admitted that an error was made and the penalty levied for the players’ roles in the season-opening brawl should have been two games.
The decision rendered was ill-advised, certainly, but failed to dampen the holiday spirits of the Hornets.
Last Saturday evening at the McCann-O’Keefe Rink, they took out their collective frustrations on a Peabody-Saugus club that is in the midst of a rebuilding phase, handing the newly-collaborative program between the two communities a 7-0 drubbing.
“The ongoing emphasis has been to keep our cool and resist retaliation,” said McAuliffe, referring to the Peabody-Saugus penalty margin of 10 to the Hornets’ 3. “They’re starting to do that. There were still a few penalties I wish we had avoided but they’re realizing the benefits of self-control.”
Senior co-Captains Luke Baker and Tyler Morello combined 3:42 into the contest to put North Reading in front, 1-0.
“I saw Tyler coming down the left side, he made a great pass to me, stick on stick, and it was an easy goal for me,” said Baker, when asked to describe his one-timer that beat P-S netminder Evan Tybinkowski glove side. “Coming back from the loss to Northeast with a 7-0 win was huge for us. It was a step in the right direction.”
Save for the Baker goal, which proved to be the eventual game-winner, the Hornets were a bit sluggish through much of the first period. During the break, McAuliffe asked the players to turn up the heat on their opponent and stressed the consequences of back-to-back losses.
“Honestly, after that first period, we were fortunate to be up by a goal,” the coach said. “The message from me was that we had to do better. I asked them for four second period goals. They gave me five.”
During the scoring deluge in the middle frame, Hornet skaters reeled off five goals in 10 minutes. Tommy Gazda made it 2-0, from brother Brendan, soon followed by Jack Hodgin (Christian Lava), Brendan Rooney (James Nelson), Brendan Gazda (Tommy Gazda) and Morello (Nolan Pierce).
“We had a number of first goals today,” said McAuliffe, who improved to 2-1 on the young season. “Senior Brendan Rooney scored the first of his career while a pair of freshmen, Brendan Gazda and Jack Hodgin each picked up their first.”
North Reading tallied three power play goals, for a total of seven thus far in the campaign. And in net, Charlie Cooper stopped all 12 P-S bids to record the first shutout of his career.
“There was a lot of valuable experience gained in this game, as well as a great deal of confidence building,” said McAuliffe. “In that second period, they were making crisp passes and getting shots on goal, all things we’ve been practicing. It finally came to fruition, which was good to see.”
This afternoon (Thursday) at 4 p.m., North Reading will travel to Simoni Rink in Cambridge to face 2-0-1 Methuen in the First Responders Tournament. Somerville and Cambridge Rindge will be in the alternate game of this four-team round robin. Losing teams will compete in the consolation round while the two winning teams will square off in the championship, both games scheduled for Friday.