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Keating leads Knights into playoffs hot

NORTH ANDOVER — With the dream of a hat trick dancing in his head, Zach Keating admits his excitement may have overtaken him for a moment.

“I almost had that third (goal),” he said with a laugh. “I’m the only one on my line that doesn’t have a hat trick this season, and I may have gotten a little over excited. I may have been trigger happy.”

The attempt at a third goal may have gone just an inch or two wide, but Wednesday was another huge day for the North Andover High budding star.
Keating, a junior winger, scored two goals and assisted on another to give him 13 goals on the season as North Andover rolled over Peabody 6-1 in its regular season finale.
With the victory the Scarlet Knights head into the posteseason 12-6-3 and unbeaten in their last six.
“It was a big win,” said Knights senior captain Nolan Heinze. “It’s always good to go into the tournament on a good win. We are on a little bit of a streak right now, our chemistry is going and we want to be rolling going into the tournament.”
And one of the reasons for the Knights’ 5-0-1 run heading into the tourney has been the play of Keating.
He started out fast on Wednesday. Just 3:54 in he picked up a rebound off a shot that missed the net and stuffed the puck in by the goalie’s skate.
Keating added a second goal in the second period. He picked the puck off the side boards, skated in and snuck a wrist shot into the goal.
Those two scores gave Keating 13 tallies on the season, two off Matt Lucy for the team-high. His 24 points also trail Lucy.
Not bad for a player that did not have a goal as a freshman and scored just six goals last year, when his brother A.J. Keating was an assistant captain.
 “Freshman year I was kind of on and off the third line,” he said. “Last year I was more just trying to lead the third line. This year I felt like I needed to step up. I am skating better than I ever have and the opportunities to shoot are there for me.
“I play on a great line with Tyler Buonopane and Lucy. We are finding each other and it is going well. My brother was a role model to me, the way he went hard every game. I took that into this year and wanted to be that example for this team.”
Keating’s linemate Lucy added a goal — a nifty rebound stuff between the goalie’s pads — and two assists while Mike Halloran, Patrick Moran and Joe Phinney each added a goal.
Knights standout Ben Carlson and backup Jack Walsh combined for the win in net.
“We haven’t lost in a while and we have beaten some good teams,” said Keating. “I think we have a lot of momentum and I think we can carry it into the playoffs. We believe we have what it takes to make a run.”
Playing for a cause
North Andover played the game in honor of late Scarlet Knights hockey fan Matthew Harty, who passed away three years ago at age 8 after a fight with a mitochondrial disease.
Numerous fundraising activities took place during the game to benefit the Matthew Harty NA Scholarship Fund.
Dropping the puck before the game was Haverhill/Pentucket/North Andover girls hockey tri-captain Rebecca Harty, Matthew’s brother. The HPNA hockey team attended the game in uniform in to support.