Pentucket hockey falls down the stretch [The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.]

Dec. 31--GLOUCESTER -- It took only 38 seconds for yesterday's clash between the Rockport and Pentucket hockey teams to turn in the Vikings' favor.

Heading into the third period, the Sachems held a 1-0 lead in a back-and-forth game in which neither team had a decided advantage over the other. Just 1:45 into the third frame, Rockport took advantage of a pair of Pentucket turnovers in its own end, capitalizing on both. By the time 2:30 passed in the frame, Rockport had a 2-1 lead and all the momentum.

Vikings junior captain Conor Douglass created a turnover and scored from a bad angle to the left of the Pentucket goal, sneaking a wrist shot just inside the far post. Just 38 seconds later, Mike Tupper created a turnover in the Sachems' zone and found Douglass, who again scored on a similar bad angle shot for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

"Our game plan coming in was to put a lot of shots on net, and we did that in the last period," Vikings head coach Derek Papalegis said. "In the first two periods, we were shooting from too far away, but we picked up the aggression, crashed the net and made their goalie move from side to side in the third."

Pentucket head coach Bill Burns credited the Vikings' third period and chalked the loss up as a lesson learned for his young team.

"We played a great 30-minute game, but there's 45 minutes of hockey to be played," Burns said. "To Rockport's credit, they played a full 45 minutes. This is a young team and we need to mature a little bit more. It's a lesson learned, but we lost the game. We had our chances, but we couldn't finish.

"(The two goals) were bang, bang. The first shot was from a really bad angle and should not have went in, but the puck found its way. That's hockey."

Pentucket had a chance to tie the score up when Rockport committed two hooking penalties on the same shift, giving the Sachems a 5-on-3 advantage for a full 90 seconds. The penalty kill unit of Douglass, Jake O'Maley and Jon Ferrante, however, thwarted Pentucket's 5-on-3 bid, allowing just three shots on goal in the power play.

Papalegis was quick to credit his team's penalty kill but was not happy with the amount of time they spent short-handed.

"Our penalty kill has been great, but we are a little to used to playing down a man," Papalegis said. "We need to correct that problem; we get too many penalties. But with that said, Douglass, O'Maley and Ferrante were great on that penalty kill. O'Maley has especially stepped up his game. He didn't get on the score sheet today, but I thought he played his best game of the year."

Douglass completed the natural hat trick with 4:43 to play, when a John Tucker centering pass was deflected right to Douglass in the slot, giving Rockport a key insurance goal.

Pentucket took a 1-0 lead in the first four minutes of play when Tom Pingree put home a pass from Ian Mitchell.

Rockport 3 Pentucket 1

at Dorothy Talbot Rink, Gloucester

Pentucket100--1

Rockport003--3

1st Period: P, Tom Pingree (Ian Mitchell) 2:35.

2nd Period: No scoring

3rd Period: R, Conor Douglass (un.) 1:45; R, Douglass (Mike Tupper) 2:23; R, Douglass (John Tucker) 10:17.

Records: P, 1-5; R, 5-0

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