GLOUCESTER — The Gloucester High boys hockey team is in a bit of a rut right now — but they certainly have the talent to drag themselves out of it.
Part of their misfortunes can be attributed to an injury bug, but head coach Derek Geary isn’t using that as an excuse.
In Wednesday evening’s Northeastern Conference clash against Marblehead, the Fishermen showed signs of life early by taking a one-goal lead into the second period. But the Headers responded by playing smart, physical hockey, skating their way to three unanswered goals from there and an eventual 3-1 victory at Talbot Rink.
It was the first conference win of the season for Marblehead, which now sits at 5-8 on the year.
“I thought they won most of the puck battles and at times we played hard, but I don’t think anybody could say that we played harder than Marblehead,” admitted Geary, his team now 7-6 and having lost five of their last six games.
“We’re struggling with our identity right now. We’ve had some adversity with some tough losses, some injuries, and our response has been to turn more inward and less team oriented and I think that’s what cost us the game.”
Already without leading scorer Colby Jewell, who continues to work his way back from injury, the Fishermen were struck with some more bad luck when Jackson Hakes went down early in the opening period and was unable to return.
Still, the Fishermen managed to open the scoring late in that first frame, as Cade Cooper blasted a shot from the right side and Colby Warren was there to deflect it home. Gloucester had three power play tries in the first 15 minutes, but was unable to add any other goals as they headed to the second with a slight 1-0 lead.
In the second, Marblehead came out with the same intensity they started with. It finally paid off, as Cam Waldman put one home off a feed from Ben Wales just over four minutes in to knot things up. Despite the score remaining the same as the second period horn sounded, the Headers had visibly taken control of the action, as evidenced by their 11 shots on goal in the second alone.
“The last three games we weren’t really skating well so we just made that emphasis to have intensity and skating and I think that resulted in the physicality you saw tonight, too,” said Marblehead coach Mark Marfione. “I think the defense too is shooting with more confidence; we just played with more confidence tonight and a little more decisiveness as far as getting shots off quicker and not hesitating.”
Gloucester had a couple of nice chances early in the third, primarily from Warren in front of the net, but weren’t able to find the back of the cage. Marblehead then took the lead for good with just over four minutes to play when Kyle Hart found some open ice and let loose on a wrister from the right side the found the top shelf for a 2-1 lead.
The Fishermen were forced to pull their goalie late and Marblehead’s James Caeran landed an empty netter goal with eight seconds left to seal the 3-1 victory.
The Headers wound up out-shooting Gloucester by a significant 22-14 margin. They showed discipline defensively and had the longer attack opportunities all evening.
On the other end, Geary was pleased with goalie Riley De Haan’s efforts in net, but struggled to find much more positives after the loss.
“We’re not really executing a simplified game plan to get pucks on net,” said Geary. “Our goaltending is always good and I think Riley has had a very, very good year so far, as has Nick (Tarantino), and Riley kept us in it tonight. So for me the goaltending is a positive and those kids are not only playing great but their attitudes are terrific. They work as hard or harder than anybody in practice.”
For Marblehead, which got some standout play from defensemen Toby Grenier who was thrust into a larger role due to injury, Wednesday’s win was hopefully a stepping stone moving forward for the tournament hopeful group.
“This is our first conference win of the year, we’ve had a lot of one goal games and good efforts, but I think it’s great to finally see a positive result to build on as we try to work towards the tournament,” said Marfione. “I thought we played pretty good D in our own zone, Leo Burdge had a good game in net, he always does. But we had our structure tonight, and even when it was breaking down a little bit we kind of stayed with our structure, stayed with our guys.”
Marblehead 3, Gloucester 1
at Dorothy Talbot Rink, Gloucester
Gloucester (7-6) 1 0 0 1
Marblehead (5-8) 0 1 2 3
First period: G, Colby Warren (Cade Cooper), 12:41
Second period: M, Cam Waldman (Ben Wales), 4:36
Third period: M, Kyle Hart (Sean Dolan), 10:48; M, James Caeran (un.), 14:52.