Power play leads Pinkerton boys hockey to convincing win over Londonderry

HOOKSETT - The Pinkerton Academy boys hockey team turned in its best power-play performance of the season and received a hat trick from Tyler Pappalardo in its 7-1 Division I victory over rival Londonderry Wednesday night at Tri-Town Ice Arena.

The Astros (5-3) went 4 for 6 on the power play and killed off the lone penalty they took in a game they led, 3-0, after the first period and 5-1 entering the final frame.

“We moved the puck really well,” Pinkerton coach Sam Littlefield said of his power-play unit. “I think the more we moved it, we got (Londonderry) moving around shifting out of position and we took advantage of that. We got some good shots and some open spaces.”

The hat trick marked Pappalardo’s first of the season and the second of his career. The sophomore forward scored two of his three goals on the power play. He also assisted on Brett Levesque’s goal with 5:34 remaining that built a 6-1 Astros lead and came just after Pinkerton’s final man advantage expired. 

“I’ve been struggling to score so it feels good to get on the board a lot (Wednesday),” Pappalardo said. “It should be a kick start for me to get going.”

Power-play goals from Pappalardo and Aidan Price and an even-strength tally from Joseph Marra, who also tallied three assists, gave the Astros a 3-0 lead after the opening 15 minutes.

Two more power-play goals from Pappalardo and Jack Normand in the second period built the Astros’ four-goal cushion entering the second intermission. Pappalardo scored 7:41 into the second period to make it 5-0 Pinkerton. His second tally of the game came 56 seconds after Normand scored on a wrister from the left circle during a five-on-three Astros advantage.

Pappalardo capped the game’s scoring and earned the hat trick with a nifty back-handed goal that came with 2:16 remaining.

Londonderry (1-6-1) trimmed Pinkerton’s lead to 5-1 with 3:20 left in the second period, when junior defenseman and co-captain Zach Rheault scored in front on a rush via assists from Nick Pitarys and Sam Seibert. Lancers coach Peter Bedford placed Rheault at forward during that shift to try to generate some offense. 

Londonderry has been either shut out or scored only once in seven games this year.

“I have a group of individuals in there who don’t want to play hockey,” Bedford said. “They just want to come here and skate. They don’t want to execute. They don’t want to play hockey.

“The other aspect is, I don’t have anybody who can put the puck in the net right now. If you don’t score, this game’s pretty hard.”

Londonderry’s penalties paired with a strong Pinkerton forecheck limited the Lancers to few promising possessions. The Astros outshot Londonderry, 27-11, over the first 30 minutes and 37-22 overall.

Senior Matt Gilliland made 21 saves for the Astros. Londonderry sophomore goaltenders Jake Holdsworth and Michael Anstey combined for 30 saves.

“It’s important to (the players) to beat Londonderry but more importantly to play a good game against them,” Littlefield said. “And I thought (Wednesday) we really just kind of played our game, didn’t fall into anything, didn’t take any stupid penalties and I think that was key.”