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Central goes north for win

SALEM – Central Catholic is a tough foe on a normal night, but when the Raiders are your third opponent in as many nights, it’s even tougher.

That’s what Salem discovered on the last night of the 13^th Annual Tuscan Kitchen Blue Devils Hockey Classic when a fresh Raider squad walked off with a 4-1 victory at the Icenter.

“They’re a really good team,” Salem coach Mark McGinn said of Central, which won for the fourth time in five games. “Going into the game we just wanted to show that we could compete … Central, obviously, is an upper-level Massachusetts team and we gave them what we could.”

The Blue Devils took everything the Raiders threw at them early as Central out shot Salem 5-0 in the first two minutes of the game. But the team from New Hampshire held the Raiders at bay during a scoreless first period.

In the second, however, the Raiders took advantage of an early power play with a goal by Mike Kelleher. Central scored what proved to be the game winner 3 minutes later when Sean Holly pushed home a rebound.

“The second period was all us,” said Central coach Mike Jankowski, whose club played in just the one tournament game. “It’s nice to come here and play. Mike is a great coach and a good guy and he asked us to play. Obviously we can’t play (the whole) tournament with the number of games we’re allowed to play. But it’s great to play in any tournament.”

Although Salem, rallied on a Jake Pappalardo goal with 50.7 second left in the second, but it was only one of four shots for Salem in the period and just one of 18 in the game as the Blue Devils were just a tad slow getting to loose pucks in front of Central goalie Colin Soucy.

“We dictated play well with our speed,” Jankowski said. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net in the first period.”

The Raiders increased their lead in the final period on goals by Ross Webber and Alex Lester. Central showed off its diversity as five different players combined for seven assists.

Salem (3-2-2) opened tournament play Thursday by tying Coventry, R.I., 3-3 then defeating Greely, Maine, 3-2 on Friday.

“It’s awesome,” McGinn said of the workload. “This (tournament) is what we’ve kind of used as our stepping stone for the rest of our season. We had three really good games … We stepped up and played the best we could play.”