BEVERLY — Logan Bowen wasted no time in getting the 2025-26 hockey season off to a smashing start for he and his Beverly Panthers.
A senior captain and first line center, Bowen scored four times and assisted on another goal as the Orange-and-Black took care of business on Opening Day Saturday, knocking off visiting Peabody/Saugus/Swampscott, before a festive crowd at Bourque Arena.
“Awesome way for us to start. The boys were buzzing from the start,” said Bowen, who needs 14 points to reach 100 for his BHS career. “We’ve had trouble in the past coming out strong and on time, but that was no problem in this one. Everyone is jelling really well together.”
Beverly, which scored four times in the third period to put the game away, outshot the Tanners by a 45-22 margin. Fellow captain Mikey O’Leary added a goal and two assists; Drew Murphy, a second line center and alternate captain, had one of each; and his linemate, junior wing Ryan Barror, also scored while defenseman Nate Wheeler (another captain) and left wing Coby Malionek (who wears an ‘A’) each dished out two helpers.
“One of the things we liked the most was how the goals were scored,” said Panther head coach Andy Scott. “We have some offensive talent, certainly, but we scored by getting to the dirty areas, working below the goal line, cycling the puck and finding space out front.”
Tyler Chin-Aleong, a junior, turned aside 19 shots in net for the winners.
Peabody/Saugus/Swampscott, in its first game under rookie head coach (and former Peabody High star defenseman) Donnie Shaw, showed definite improvement in its own end of the ice and in terms of speed up front, especially among the top two lines. Goaltender Dom Pappalardo, a Swampscott resident, was busy the entire way, turning aside 38 shots. But the Tanners were also chasing the lead throughout the contest, however, tying it once at 1-1 and getting it to 3-2 after two periods, but no closer.
Still, Shaw a lot of positives for his team’s first time out.
“The effort was there, the want was there, and there was a strong level of compete,” he said. “In the past when things went wrong we had trouble keeping our composure at times, but that hasn’t been a problem this year. We collect ourselves and get back to what we want to be doing.
“We’ve been focusing on our discipline, our game plan, being strong in our own end, and our conditioning,” he added. “We got a little tired in the third period (Saturday), but we’ve got almost two weeks off until we play again, so we’ll be working a lot on conditioning.”
Speedy Matvey Stupnikov of Peabody had each of the first two Peabody/Saugus/Swampscott goals, one on a bang-bang one-timer out front that made it 3-2 after thirty minutes. Saugus linemates Josh Kelley (goal) and John Morello connected to make it 4-3 with 2:58 left to play before Murphy responded for Beverly 38 seconds later, then Bowen added his third and fourth goals.
Stupnikov had tied the game for the visitors, 1-1, early in the middle stanza before Barror and O’Leary connected within 15 seconds of one another, giving the Panthers a 3-1 lead they’d never relinquish.
Beverly 7, Peabody/Saugus/Swampscott 3
at Bourque Arena, Beverly
P/S/S;0;2;1;3
Beverly;1;2;4;7
First period: Logan Bowen (Ryan Everett), ppg, 12:08.
Second period: P/S/S, Matvey Stupnikov (Brandon Barone), 5:30; B, Ryan Barror (Nate Wheeler, Drew Murphy), 6:29: B, Mikey O’Leary (Coby Malionek, Bowen), 6:44; P/S/S, Stupnikov (Jason Rothwell, Barone), 12:37.
Third period: B, Bowen (Malionek, O’Leary), 9:10; Jason Kelley (John Morello), ppg, 12:02; B, Murphy (O’Leary), 12:40; B, Bowen (Wheeler), eng, 14:06; B, Bowen (Adam Campos), 14:38.
Saves: P/S/S, Dom Pappalardo 38; B, Tyler Chin-Aleong 19.
Records: B, 1-0; P/S/S, 0-1