TEWKSBURY — When confronted with a freight train, the Greenfield hockey team stood in the tracks and did not cower on Saturday.
The 13th-seeded seeded Green Wave took No. 4 Wilmington down to the final seconds, but ultimately lost to the Wildcats, 4-3, in the MIAA Division 4 tournament Round of 16 at Breakaway Ice Arena.
“I told all the boys, when you go to a dragon fight there’s a dragon and a dragon slayer,” Greenfield coach Adam Bouchard said. “Sometimes the dragon wins. We were the dragon slayer and the dragon ended up winning. “
Greenfield fought and scrapped in its attempt even the score in the final minutes but couldn’t find the net. The Green Wave had two power plays and keeper Ben Johnston out of the net during the late stages of the game.
Luca Siano and Shawn Baumann scored first period goals for Greenfield.
“We almost weren’t supposed to be in that game on paper,” Siano said. “To be in that game was kind of a good feeling. It was emotional. It’s fun. I don’t really have words. Looking back on it now. So many things could have happened differently. Hockey is a difficult game. It’s hard to win.”
The first period goals temporarily silenced a raucous and crowded student section for Wilmington. Johnston was under a rapid-fire howitzer type assault the entire game but stook tall to make 40 saves in net for Greenfield. Johnston’s play kept Greenfield in the game throughout.
“We set a goal out, put pucks on net early,” Bouchard said. “Any opportunity that we had. We wanted to get that energy back to where we wanted it to be…that’s exactly what we wanted to start the hockey game. We needed to bring energy and control the atmosphere.”
Greenfield did not have a lot of offensive zone time in the first period, but Siano went through the middle of the zone and fired to give Greenfield a 1-0 lead. The goal occurred just three minutes into the game.
Shawn Baumann later scored off a faceoff to give Greenfield a 2-0 lead at the 9:38 mark of first period. Wilmington and its student section seemed stunned heading into the first intermission trailing, 2-0.
“Our whole thing was to come out with confidence,” Siano said. “Don’t let their seed, being number four in the state, and their big student section go against us. Don’t let it affect us.”
The talent and speed of the Wildcats showed itself with overwhelming force in the first five minutes of the second period. Wilmington scored three goals in the first five minutes of the second frame to take a 3-2 lead. Greenfield stabilized for the remainder of the period and went into the third period trailing, 3-2.
Derek Perault, Emrick O’Brien and Isaac Tavares scored in the short span for Wilmington. Just 39 seconds into the third period, Wilmington took a 4-2 lead when Nate Murphy found the net for the Lions.
At the moment, a two-goal deficit seemed insurmountable against the mighty Wildcats.
“That’s part of Green Wave hockey,” Bouchard said. “Forty-five hard minutes. We pushed as hard as we could. When they went up 4-2, we could have folded. A lot of high school hockey teams do especially in an environment like this and the pressure like it is. We continued to push and push. We just couldn’t bury one to tie it.”
With about eight minutes remaining, Jack Laurie scored for Greenfield with assists coming from Luca Siano and Nico Siano. In the final six minutes, Greenfield had two power play opportunities but could not break through the stout defense of Wilmington.
Wilmington advances to play the winner of No. 8 Sandwich and No. 9 Saint Bernard’s in the Round of 8. Laurie added an assist for Greenfield. Chase Zraunig notched an assist on Baumann’s goal.