Boys’ hockey team gains a split of weekend games

Warriors prevail 4-2 against Belmont, drop 8-3 contest to Burlington

By DAN BYRNE

SAUGUS— The Wakefield Memorial High School varsity boys’ hockey team took on Burlington on Saturday night at Kasabuski Arena.

The Red Devils are one of the teams in consideration for the Super Eight tournament, as they are most seasons, but Wakefield looked to play the role of spoilers. The Warriors gave Burlington their best shot but were unable to pull off the upset, falling by an 8-3 final score.

The loss came after Wakefield posted its second victory of the season with a 4-2 triumph over Belmont on Friday afternoon at the Viglirolo Rink.

Wakefield is now 2-13-4 overall and 2-11-2 in the Middlesex League Freedom division.

Burlington Game

“We’re learning,” said Coach John Pellerin after the game. “We’re getting better. We have the ability, it just needs to be there consistently.”

To open the game, Wakefield came out and pushed the Red Devils’ defense back putting pressure on the goal.

On the other end of the ice, Tyler Pugsley was in net facing a barrage of shots from the Burlington attack lines.

Pugsley came under fire early and often in the Wakefield net but in the first period he was able to turn away all eight shots he faced.

“This is great experience for him,” said the coach of his young net-minder.

Pugsley got the call to play on Friday when the Warrior notched their first win of the year, a 4-2 triumph over Belmont, and Coach Pellerin felt confident to send him out again the next day versus Burlington.

The table was set for Wakefield to look to pull off the upset halfway through the third minute of the first period.

There Dylan Melanson fed Anthony Funicella on the break toward the net. Funicella’s initial shot was stopped but the rebound came right back and, on the second attempt, the senior put the Warriors in front 1-0.

Wakefield was penalized just one time in the first period, which the penalty killing unit disposed of without surrendering the lead.

At the end of one period, Wakefield headed into the intermission leading 1-0.

As the second period started Wakefield found itself with an angry Burlington team on their hands.

The Red Devils came out and upped the physical play in the second period and started to put some pressure on Pugsley in the Wakefield goal.

With just over three minutes gone in the second period, Burlington was bearing down on the Wakefield goal. With a scrum going on in front of the net, it appeared the referee blew his whistle after losing sight of the puck. Nearly simultaneously, the Burlington players began to celebrate as the puck was in the net.

After some confusion about whether the whistle blew before the puck crossed line, Burlington was awarded a goal, to the displeasure of Coach John Pellerin and Wakefield.

“They said the puck went in before they blew the whistle, which is not what I saw,” commented the coach regarding the first Burlington goal.

Indeed, to most in the stadium it appeared the whistle had blown but after a short discussion the goal was granted.

“They both didn’t put their hands up, they both didn’t point, they had to sit there and talk about it,” said coach Pellerin.

With the score now tied at 1-1, Wakefield did its best to stay even with Burlington but the game was slipping away.

Coach Pellerin steered clear of pinning the momentum shift solely on the controversy of the first goal, but he acknowledged the impact it had on the psyche of the players,

“It was one of the contributing factors that led to the defeat,” the coach said. “If you continue to make mistakes, good teams like this are going to capitalize.”

For most of the second period the Warriors found a way to weather the storm.

Just around the midway point in the second period, Wakefield’s Joe Stackhouse and Burlington’s Josh Boulos were sent to the penalty box for matching roughing penalties.

Burlington stepped ahead on the scoreboard as Jack Rasso was credited with getting a shot by Pugsley to make it 2-1 Burlington. It looked like Pugsley was run into on the play but it apparently must have been one of his own teammates that ran the interference as the goal stood and Burlington led 2-1.

Burlington’s Boulos got sent to the penalty box again for roughing with just over a minute to play giving the Warriors a man advantage for the remainder of the second and the start of the third periods.

Unfortunately for Wakefield, Burlington’s shorthanded forecheck caused a neutral ice turnover and Robby McLean scored as time expired to give Burlington a 3-1 lead going into the final period.

The third period didn’t go as the Warriors had planned, after Burlington scored two goals in the first four minutes to give the Devils a 5-1 lead. Burlington would add two more to make it 7-1 before Wakefield lit the lamp again.

James McAuliffe got Wakefield’s second goal at 9:25 in the third period to bring the score to 7-2.

Andrew Patti brought the Warriors a step closer at 11:11 in the third as his shot found the back of the net and the score read 7-3.

That would be the end of the scoring for Wakefield as Burlington tacked on one more goal for good measure, just 28 seconds after Patti scored to make it 8-3.

Looking ahead, the varsity boys’ hockey team concludes its season Thursday as it heads to Watertown.

“We have one more game left, we’re playing the spoiler role and we can skate with them,” the coach said.

Belmont Game

The Warriors played their best hockey of the season in a makeup game at Belmont on Friday afternoon. Wakefield scored two goals in the first period and two in the third period. The Marauders got single tallies in the second and third frames.

“We outskated and outplayed Belmont for all three periods,” said Pellerin. “They were a step behind us the whole game.”

Pugsley, a freshman, played in goal and earned his first victory in a Warrior uniform. Pugsley played well in net and made some nice saves.

Patti and McAuliffe, both senior forwards, scored the first two goals in the first period. Senior forwards Zach Salamone and Funicella tallied the pair of third period goals. Stackhouse made a nice feed on the Funicella goal which help seal the deal for Wakefield.

The silver forward line of Patti, Salamone and Bryan Noyes continued to play well. The red forward line which included Funicella, Stackhouse and sophomore David Melanson had a good effort as well. The yellow forward line of McAuliffe, junior Steve Marino and sophomore PJ Iannuzzi also had a strong outing.

“They played very good hockey,” said Pellerin.

Also on defense, senior Jack Brown, junior Dylan Melanson, senior Derek Bye, sophomore Ben Coccoluto and senior Dom Bruno all were key contributors to the defensive effort.

“It was a great effort from start to finish,” said Pellerin. “It’s nice to see the players rewarded for all their hard work.”

(Sports Editor Jim Southmayd contributed to this report).

—–

Saturday’s Game

At Kasabuski Arena, Saugus

Burlington……..0  3  5 — 8

WAKEFIELD…..1  0  2 — 3

—–

First Period — Wak, Funicella (Dy.Melanson) 3:26. Penalties — Wak, Dunn (tripping) 10:36.

Second Period — Bur, O’Connor (un.) 3:18. Bur, Rasso (Metzdord, Hughes) 9:31. Bur, McLean (Boulos, Manfredi) 14:59. Penalties — Wak, Stackhouse (roughing) 7:24; Bur, Boulos (roughing) 7:24; Bur, Boulos (roughing) 13:18.

Third period — Bur, O’Halloran (Bonanno, Hannafin) 2:02. Wak, McAuliffe (Iannuzzi) 3:26. Bur, McLean (Ryan Nikolopoulos) 3:50. Bur, Rasso (un.) 6:46. Bur, Nikolopoulos (McLean, Boulos) 8:33. Wak, Patti (Dunn, Noyes) 11:11 (pp). Bur, Rasso (Bonanno) 11:38 (sh). Penalties — Wak, Stackhouse (tripping) 7:03; Wak, Kane (game misconduct) 10:04; Wak, Bruno (roughing) 10:09; Bur, O’Halloran, double-minor, (tripping, roughing) 10:09; Bur, Metzdorf (tripping) 10:09; Bur, Gilberg (tripping) 10:09.

Shots on Goal — Burlington 30. Wakefield 19.

Power Plays — Burlington 0 for 3. Wakefield 1 for 4.

Goalies — Bur, Barbieri (19 shots-16 saves). Wak, Pugsley (30-22).