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Londonderry marksman Tommy Thompson took the puck on a breakaway, but he was robbed on a stellar save by Pinkerton goalie J.J. Solloway with five minutes left to seal a 2-1 victory for the Astros.

WATERTOWN – Ryan Sifferlen saw his high school hockey career hanging in the balance, and he put his on his back. Unfortunately for North Andover, it still wasn’t enough.

Londonderry remained in playoff contention with yesterday's 6-4 win over Exeter. Tommy Thompson had a hat trick and also chipped in an assist. Steve Hanlon had two goals and an assist, and Ryan Callahan dished out three helpers as the Lancers improved to 7-8-1.

Timberlane trounced Oyster River, 6-0, behind a trio of three-point performances from Trevor DeVitto (two goals, assist), Austin Viens (goal, two assists) and Zach Fox (three assists). Ryan Rothwell picked up his area-leading seventh shutout of the season with 15 saves between the pipes.

Mark Baroni tallied a pair of goals in Salem's 7-2 loss to Hanover. The Blue Devils hung with their opponents through two periods, trailing just 2-1 at the end of the second, but Hanover erupted for five third-period goals to seal the win.

Brendan McCarron tied his season-high with two goals as Central Catholic finished off its undefeated regular season with a 4-3 win over Westford Academy. The win clinched the Merrimack Valley Conference/Dual Country League Division 1 title for the Raiders (15-0-7). Nick Leonard and freshman Tom Evangelista each added a goal for the winners. 

Shut out through two quarters, Zach Fox and Timberlane found the touch in the third and exploded for a 5-1 victory over Kingswood. Fox tallied a hat trick and Trevor DeVitto and Ryan Lynch each scored once for the Owls, who have won 14 of its last 15.

Last night, it was Zach Fox's turn to shine. The junior center to scored a pair of goals, giving him 13 for the season, to help Timberlane defeat Goffstown 4-2.

No local athlete hotter than Andover's Kyle Berthiaume. The sophomore goalie notched his third shutout in four games to give the Golden Warriors a 2-0 win over Acton-Boxboro. In his last five starts, he has surrendered just two goals.

Brad McGovern netted the game's only goal in Haverhill's 1-0 win over Matignon. Pat Roberts assisted on the play, and Justin Boraczek posted 32 saves in the shutout.

Andover goalie Kyle Berthiaume did it again for  the Andover hockey team. Two days after holding unbeaten Central Catholic to a 1-1 tie, he made 32 saves as the Warriors blanked a solid Wakefield team, 1-0. Paul Russell scored for the Warriors.

NORTH ANDOVER — It’s not like this hadn’t happened before.
According to North Andover head coach Denis Barrette, slow starts and tepid play have been a bugaboo all season long, and this was the case again yesterday afternoon.
As a result, against a 13-2-2 Wilmington squad owning two wins over the Knights this year and who had already clinched the Cape Ann League crown, the first period at Merrimack College was a test of survival for goaltender Tyler Morandi.
Physical play from the Wildcats combined with steals of weak backline passes to put Morandi under the gun repeatedly in the opening 15 minutes. Luckily, the junior was up to the task, repelling all attempts until the Scarlet Knights finally escalated their play.
And on Mike Indigaro’s power-play goal in the second period, North Andover’s rebound was complete on the way to an encouraging 3-1 victory that could pay dividends come tournament time.
“I try to explain to the kids what we need to do to win,” Barrette said. “The intensity needs to be there at the start because the games are only 45 minutes long.”
But it wasn’t there at the start and Wildcat skaters Ed Barrasso, Sean Tavares, Colin Foley, Jared Ravagni and Liam Gately were rewarded with four-star scoring opportunities. Morandi turned aside each shot, allowing the Knights to escape with a scoreless deadlock.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Morandi, who finished with 27 saves, said of the opening barrage. “We weren’t playing well in the first period and then the whole team stepped it up.”
“Look at it this way,” Barrette explained, “the speech at the end of the first period wasn’t exactly a classical, ‘let’s-adjust-this’ kind of speech. There was a little more of a high-tempo (message). I think we needed that.”
Behind aggressive play from top line center Ryan Sifferlen and wingers Brian O’Connor and Brian Amor, North Andover, now 9-5-5, turned the tide and opened the scoring. Amor gobbled up the rebound of a Sean McGrath wrister in the slot and tucked it into the open net past Zach Rosa (19 saves) six minutes into the middle period.
The Knights continued to press, putting four tough short-handed shots onto Rosa before an athletic power-play move by standout senior Chris Webber tied the contest with 4:44 left in the middle period. But this didn’t depress the hosts.
“We were just fired up after the second period,” Morandi said. “We were ready to go, and a tie wasn’t going to be good enough.”
On its own power play with 7:07 left in the game, Sifferlen glided through the left faceoff circle and hit Indigaro cleanly in the left slot. The senior whipped a wrist shot past Rosa’s left hip and into the twine for the eventual game-winner.
More important, the Knights then kept Wilmington bottled up in the neutral zone, not allowing the ‘Cats to pull Rosa until only 38 seconds remained. Jack Hyman stole an entry pass at his own blue line and fed Sifferlen behind the Wilmington defense for an easy empty-net marker with 16.2 seconds to wrap up the victory.
“It’s high school hockey, sometimes the guys don’t really respond or get going when we need them to,” Barrette concluded. “It’s not like we don’t have the horses. We just try to explain what we need to do to win.”

Bob DiSorbo and goalie Andrew Mueskes could both lay laim to being Mr. Clutch as the Pentucket hockey team defeated Saugus 4-3 in a shootout in the opening game of the Newburyport Bank Tournament.

Andrew Robitaille scored twice and assisted on two others as Londonderry topped Manchester Memorial, 8-5. Tommy Thompson and Scott Morrison also had two goals each, for the Lancers (7-10).

METHUEN — It was turning into the St. Valentine’s Day shootout, but then Casey Sweeney stepped in.

“Coach wanted me to keep it simple,” said Sweeney. “I listened to what he had to say and things worked out.” Almost everything worked out for Sweeney as the sophomore took on the role of playmaker with a goal and four assists to drive Haverhill past Methuen, 6-2.