PEABODY — Senior captain Alexa Pepper of the Peabody girls hockey team is still working her way back to full strength after overcoming a knee injury. You would never known that from the minutes she logged Monday afternoon.
Missing a handful of top forwards due to illness, the Tanners had to shorten their bench and lean on two lines against a physical Falmouth team that came in ranked No. 7 in the state in Division 2. Pepper rose to the occasion, both by backchecking like a buzzing bee and by netting the game-winning goal on the power play in a hard-fought 2-1 victory at McVann-O’Keefe Rink.
“Alexa had a great game for us,” said Peabody coach Michelle Roach, whose team improved to 8-1-1 despite being without last year’s Northeastern Hockey League MVP Ava Buckley.
“It’s only Alexa’s third game back and she’d never been out on that power play unit before. She took Ava’s spot, we told her just stand in front of the net and try to make something happen. She got that rebound and it was a goal we really needed.”
Peabody led 2-0 when Pepper scored her first of the year off Mia Lava’s rebound with an assist from Mikaela O’Driscoll with 11:05 left in the second. The goal came in the 5-on-4 carryover time after the Tanners applied big pressure during a 5-on-3 advantage which had expired.
Falmouth (6-4), which skated in the D2 state final at TD Garden last winter, got on the board when Casey Roth sent a perfect feed in front to Riley Devlin with 4:54 left in the second. That’s when things got a little hairy for PLNR, which started to feel some fatigue in the third from both the short bench and the game script calling for a lot of special teams play (eight combined penalties).
The Clippers had eight of their 18 total shots in that third period but Tanner goalie Alyse Mutti was up to the task. There was plenty of solid defense plays along the way, like captain Leah Buckley quickly slapping a loose puck from the crease to the back boards to prevent one look at the tying goal.
“We have a great goalie and a really strong D-corp. Having that an our anchor when we’re fighting our game a little bit gives a lot of stability and confidence in these tight spots,” said Roach, who praised blue liners Chloe Gromko, O’Driscoll, Maura Flaws, Eleni Spack and Leah Buckley.
It was an unassisted end-to-end rush by Gromko that got the hosts on the board in the first period. The Tanners carried the play for the second half of that opening frame, outshooting Falmouth by a 10-1 margin after allowing the first four shots of the contest. Clipper goalie Raelynn Spellman stood tall to keep it a one goal game after one.
Another crucial sequence saw Falmouth earn 1:11 of 5-on-3 power play time in the first. Roach called on Pepper to be her lone defensive forward on the ice for that penalty kill and she stepped up to the tune of clearing the puck twice and not allowing a single Falmouth shot on goal during the two man advantage.
“This was a hard fought, physical game against a good team,” said Roach. “We were pretty tired there at the end, but we found a way to hit the reset button and finish the job.”
Shirley Whitmore, a senior winger, played well up front for the Tanners along with captain Erin Dee. Freshman Sydney Zizza also had a good three-zone outing, shifting to center to help fill some of the void.
Peabody 2, Falmouth 1
at MvcVann-O’Keefe Rink, Peabody
Falmouth;0;1;0;1
Peabody;1;1;0;2
Scoring summary
First period: PLNR, Chloe Gromko (un), 6:59.
Second period: PLNR, Alexa Pepper (Mia Lava, Mikaela O’Driscoll), ppg, 3:55; F, Riley Devlin (Casey Roth, Maeve Turner), 10:06.
Third period: No scoring.
Saves: F, Raelynn Spellman 25; PLNR, Alyse Mutti 18.
Records: F, 6-4-0; PLNR, 8-1-1.