By Mike Rubin

Despite a young roster, Somerville hockey coach Chuck Allen has lead his squad to an impressive 2-0 start. After a thrilling 2-1 season opening victory against Revere, the Highlanders escaped with a 6-4 win over Northeast Regional in Saturday night’s home opener at Veterans Memorial Rink.

In the win over Revere, the Highlanders were faced with a 1-0 deficit before tying the contest midway through the second period on a goal by Dave Cooper.

Throughout the contest, both teams continued to trade quality scoring chances before Dan Camarata netted the game-winning goal with 10:00 remaining in the third.

Minding the net, goaltender Mike McMahon stopped 18 shots in the winning effort.

“I thought we came out a little slow, and we made some mistakes,” said Allen. “But we were able to make the proper adjustments and come through with some timely goal scoring. We’re a young team, and we still need to work on a lot of things, but right now, I think we’re heading in the right direction.”

In Saturday night’s shootout victory over Northeast Regional, the Highlanders spotted the Knights a 2-0 deficit before erupting with four unanswered goals in the second to grab a 4-2 lead.

Early in the third period, the Knights trimmed the lead within 4-3 before the Highlanders extended the lead to two. After another goal by the Knights, the Highlanders secured the victory with an empty net goal.

Offensively, Cooper led the way, recording four goals while Charlie O’Leary added a pair in the win.

“(Dave) is playing great hockey right now, but that’s his job,” said Allen. “His job is to score goals, and he’s just doing that. (O’Leary) is doing a great job with the scoring as well, but that’s what these guys need to do. They’re scoring goals, and our defense has done a great job holding their own.”

While the Highlanders have yet to lose, Allen is concerned about the team’s slow starts to games.

“We need to get off to a quicker start to games,” said Allen. “We can’t be behind two or three goals heading into the second period, because it’s going to eventually catch up to us. We have a lot of work to do, and even though I’m pleased that we’re 2-0, we’re far from where we want to be.”