Boys’ hockey drops OT heartbreaker to undefeated Belmont

MATT ELWELL scored one of Wakefield’s four goals against Belmont on MLK Day. (File Photo)

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

BELMONT — The Wakefield High boys’ hockey team brought home plenty to be proud of after a 5-4 overtime loss to undefeated Belmont (12-0-1) at the Skip Viglirolo Rink on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Due to the MIAA’s newly implemented rule of 4-on-4 OT to determine winners in the regular season, largely in an effort to eradicate ties for the new statewide tournament power rankings, the Warriors didn’t get a point out of their trip to Belmont as Cam Fici completed a hat trick and won the game with 34 seconds left in the extra period.

What Wakefield did get was proof that they could skate with one of the best teams in the state at even strength.

In 5-on-5 play, the Warriors outscored the Marauders 4-0. Before their 5th and final goal, Belmont’s previous four all came on the power play.

Wakefield got goals from senior captain Joey O’Brien, junior Sean Hogan, junior captain Matt Elwell and senior Michael Parent.

O’Brien opened the scoring about six minutes in, taking the puck from his own zone right up the middle, splitting two defenders across the Belmont blue line and firing in a wrist shot stick side.

Belmont’s first of five power plays occurring at 6:30 quickly turned into a 5-on-3 for 1:48. O’Brien, Elwell and Parent nearly killed the two-man advantage until Matty Rowan evened things up at 1-1 before the 5-on-3 expired, setting up the home team with 45 more seconds to take the lead which Rowan did with 4:19 left in the period.

MICHAEL PARENT scored the tying goal in the 3rd period at the Viglirolo Rink in Belmont to force overtime. (File Photo)

Wakefield stayed the course at even play for the rest of the period and Hogan scored his first career goal with 1:27 left to make it 2-2. Sophomore defenseman Liam McNeil recovered a puck in the D zone and banked it up the right wing boards to junior Bobby DeFeo who recovered in the neutral zone and put a shot on net. As a Belmont defender was trying to clear the rebound, it got just out of reach and a crashing Hogan kicked it onto his stick and put it in.

O’Brien was robbed twice by Belmont goalie Ian Burns in this one. The second was in overtime which led to the game-winner. The first came early in the 2nd period, a diving stick save on a shot off a rebound from the weak side.

Wakefield’s senior goalie Jon Guida (27 saves) was sharp throughout the 2nd, a period in which he allowed just one goal (another power play score) on 14 shots. Wakefield played a surging Marauder team tough in that 2nd and after Fici’s first made it 3-2 with 3:14 remaining, it appeared as though the home team would enter the next break in front.

Elwell wasn’t having that, scoring with about 1:30 left to make it 3-3. The whole shift preceding the goal was a clinic from Wakefield’s top line, especially O’Brien who put pressure on Belmont’s defenders all over the zone. Eventually the puck found sophomore defenseman Brian Purcell who put it on net. Elwell cleaned up the rebound quickly and finished.

Belmont went on the man advantage again late in the period which carried over into the 3rd. Fici scored again to make it 4-3 but Wakefield continued to battle.

The Warriors earned a power play of their own with about six minutes left and though they couldn’t convert, Parent scored on a scrum in front just as Belmont got their fifth skater back on the ice.

Wakefield defended with everything they had to fight off the Marauders in the last 30 seconds and force overtime.

There were no shots on either side in the first two minutes of a tense OT. Guida, who recorded four saves in the extra period, got the first highlight reel save of OT, robbing a Belmont forward from point blank range. Wakefield’s best chance came as the clock ticked under a minute. Elwell and O’Brien got out on a 2-on-1 – Elwell dished over O’Brien as they flew over the blue line but the captain’s shot was stopped by Burns. That led to a long breakout pass to Fici, a junior transfer from Belmont Hill, who received it and fired about as quickly as a player at any level could to win the game.

The last-second heartbreak was the third one-goal loss in a row for the 4-6 Warriors who also dropped 3-2 contests to Stoneham and Burlington on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15 respectively.

Wakefield’s schedule doesn’t get any easier, matching up with 6-2 Winchester this Saturday at O’Brien Rink in Woburn at 2 p.m. before traveling to Burbank Arena to meet Reading next Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.