Boys’ hockey team falls one point short of tournament
TOMMY HARRINGTON looks for a teammate during the 1st period of Wakefield’s game against Wilmington on Friday at Stoneham Ice Arena. Harrington finished his junior season as Wakefield’s leading scorer. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
Published in the February 26, 2018 edition.
By DAN ZIMMERMAN
STONEHAM — After playing several scrimmages, twenty regular season games, and toiling through countless practice sessions, it all came down to the last few minutes in the Wakefield Warriors’ hockey finale against Wilmington on Friday afternoon.
With a playoff berth hanging in the balance, all the Warriors needed to seal the deal was a tie against the Wildcats. A tall task, certainly, but for most of the game, they were on target to do just that. But with minutes left and knotted at 1, Wilmington struck for a go-ahead goal and never looked back. The final, 5-1, is indicative of Wakefield subbing goaltender Justin Harding for an extra attacker, resulting in empty-netters in the waning moments.
Wilmington wrapped up the regular season with an 11-10 mark and will face Lynnfield in the opening round of the MIAA Tournament on Tuesday. Wakefield, in the meantime, closed out a disappointing 2017-18 campaign with a 5-14-1 overall record.
“Honestly, this was a product of playing with just four defensemen for awhile,” explained Wakefield assistant coach Mike Manfredi, when asked if he felt the Warriors relied too heavily on their goaltending in this and other games throughout the season. “They were definitely a little tired in that third period. They were giving it everything they had but there wasn’t much left in the tank.”
Wilmington head coach Stephen Scanlon, who led his Wildcats past Wakefield in a 3-0 defeat two weeks ago, agreed with the fatigue philosophy.
“This was a similar game to that first one when we also got all of our goals in the third period,” he said. “Wakefield was desperate and a desperate team is usually tough to beat. But we try to play at a really high pace early and tire teams out and I think they were a little gassed at the end.”
Playing scoreless through the first period and most of the second, Wakefield blue-liner Jake Regan finally snapped the deadlock with 35 seconds left on a blast from the right point that beat Wildcat netminder Ryan St. Jean. Dan Guarino and Cam Souza were credited with assists on Regan’s seventh of the year which tied Thomas Harrington for most goals scored.
Because they could still punch their tournament ticket with a tie, the Warriors were in the driver’s seat with a goal to give. Spirits were high between the second and third periods.
During the first period, Wildcat shooters pelted Harding with 17 shots but time and again, he made the job look routine. His concentration was unmatched. Squaring to the puck, he corralled everything sent his way and rebounds were scarce. But early in the third period, Wilmington’s Joseph Mirabella got a stick on one of those few caroms. He flipped it at Harding who made the initial stop but the shot had enough steam behind it to trickle across the line.
“We had talked about just simply using the glass and other means to clear it out of the zone,” said Manfredi. “We had a couple of missteps. Like I’ve said before, good teams will bury second chances.”
Despite a tie score, there was a decided momentum shift in Wilmington’s favor. The Wildcats took advantage of the tiring Warriors and the fact that Harding, in fact, was not superhuman. At 9:04 of the third period, Daniel Woods beat him for a go-ahead goal, lifting the puck over his outstretched pad.
From that juncture, things turned ugly for the Warriors. The coaching staff exchanged Harding for an added skater with 1:45 left and it was soon 3-1 on an empty-netter by Woods. Seconds later, with Harding still on the bench, Jared Venezia also cashed in on the unoccupied net. Harding was sent back only to be scored on again by Woods.
Departing Wakefield seniors include Ryan Chambers, Pat Roche, Eric Devlin, John Knowles, and goaltender Tyler Pugsley.
Manfredi agreed that it’s never too early to look toward next season. The Warriors will return relatively intact and the nine freshmen in their ranks will have a year’s experience behind them.
“Our goal this year was to get some playoff experience knowing that next year could be bigger for us in terms of who we have coming back and the progression of the freshmen,” said Manfredi. “We fell short by a point this year and some of the kids who will be seniors next season, like Jake Regan and Tommy Harrington, for example, are not going to forget this day.”
