Warrior skaters roar back in the 3rd for 4-3 win

Wakefield scores three straight to shock Woburn

MIKE LUCEY tied the game at 3 late in the 3rd period before assisting on Matt Petitto’s game-winning goal to give the Warriors an exciting 4-3 win over Woburn. (Donna Larsson Photo)

Published in the January 29, 2018 edition.

By DAN ZIMMERMAN

STONEHAM — On Saturday night, the Wakefield Warriors boys’ hockey team snapped a 4-game winless skid, coming from behind to defeat Woburn in dramatic fashion.

Trailing 3-1 late in the third period, the Warriors reeled off three unanswered goals in a four minute span including the game winner with just seconds remaining.

Woburn, which recently suffered 1-goal losses in four of its last five games, fell to a record of 2-11 overall. The Warriors, meanwhile, revived their playoff hopes by improving to 4-8-1 which, in addition, bettered a three win finish last season.

“We’ve been taking our lumps over the last few games,” said Wakefield assistant coach Mike Manfredi. “This was a dogfight between a pair of evenly-matched teams and it came down to who wanted it more.”

From the outset, the Warriors carried the play, outshooting Woburn by an 11-5 margin in the first period. But they were held out by goalie Nick D’Antuonno, who faced 35 shots in all, including a number of labeled bids during a 1:41 span while Wakefield skated 5-on-3 on back-to-back Tanner penalties.

“I believe he’s new to the position,” said Manfredi of the opposition’s exemplary goalie. “I give him all the credit in the world because he really battled. He had to fight off a number of long shots and we could have had a handful more goals if not for him.”

After a scoreless first period, Woburn climbed into a 1-0 lead early in the second when Lance Anderson one-timed a pass from Aiden Robinson, beating Warriors goalie Justin Harding low to the glove side.

Mike Petitto drilled home the equalizer near the end of the second period off a feed from Thomas Harrington. Petitto was new to first line duties and as Manfredi explained, the move obviously yielded positive results.

“It was something we saw in the game against Arlington,” said the coach. “There were a couple of times Mike ended up on a line with Tommy (Harrington) and Oliver (Miller) and we liked what we saw. We decided to try that combination tonight and moving Cal Tryder back helped jump start our second line. We were getting good pressure from both lines.”

Woburn kicked off a busy third period with a pair of goals, from Joey Guarino and Henry Johnson to surge ahead, 3-1.

Midway through the third and trailing by a pair, Wakefield had an obvious goal disallowed. An official lost sight of the puck which was wedged beneath D’Antuonno’s pads but still visible. The referee didn’t whistle the play dead until after Miller had knocked it in. The blown call triggered a protest from the Wakefield fans gathered in the Stoneham Arena stands. It also served to ignite the Warriors bench.

“I’ll say this about that,” said Manfredi. “If anything, it kind of made them angry. The kids who were on that shift who earned that goal came back to the bench and were really furious. It was about that time that these kids looked at each and said enough is enough.”

Jake Regan, who early in the game was taking it to the Tanners with his trademark hits, was first to strike on the comeback trail, scoring on a power play with 4:51 left. Assisting on the goal that closed the deficit to 3-2 was Harrington, who reached a career milestone with 50 points.

Discipline or lack thereof, played a role in the Woburn downfall. A flagrant Tanners roughing infraction afforded the Warriors yet another power play opportunity and they capitalized with a game-tying goal from Mike Lucey, assisted by Matt Petitto and Brogan Chambers.

After trailing, some might have been content to skate off the ice with a tie but Matt Petitto would have none of that. The freshman defenseman, on assists from Harrington and Lucey, sent the Wakefield faithful into a frenzied celebration, as his wristshot found the back of the net for a game-winning goal with 23 seconds remaining.

“During the intermission between periods, we heard a nice motivational speech,” said Petitto. “We knew what we had to do and we got it done. This was two points that were really crucial to our team and can change our whole season.”

“Woburn sort of self-destructed, giving us that little spark,” said Manfredi, who next travels to face Belmont on Wednesday. “It was great to see the kids finally come together and pull out an important win.”