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The Dedham and Walpole High boys hockey teams skated to a dramatic finish Saturday night as the Marauders struck in the final seconds to forge a 3-3 tie with the Rebels.
Trailing by a goal in the waning moments, Dedham was granted a power play and then made it 6-on-4 by pulling goalie Jimmy Riley for an extra attacker. The strategy paid dividends when Timmy Corrado crashed the net and scored the tying goal with just 14 seconds left.
The draw moved Dedham to 2-7-1 overall heading into tonight's contest at Milton. In most instances, a tie score leaves something to be desired for the participants and spectators alike, but for Dedham, getting its first point in BSC play tempered recent woes. In three straight defeats leading up to Saturday night’s clash with the Rebels at Flood Rink, the Marauders had been outscored by a wide 23-1 margin.
“Obviously, we were thrilled to get a tie at the end,” said Dedham coach Paul Podolski, who pointed out that he had to juggle his lines due to ranks decimated by injuries. “It good was to pull this out after three bad games in a row.”
It was the fourth tie in nine outings for Walpole, coming on the heels of a tough 5-1 loss to Milton. The Rebels host rival Norwood tonight.
“We’ve been harping on our team all week that they need to treat every game like they would the playoffs,” said Walpole coach Jamie O’Leary, whose team moved to 2-3-4 overall. “I think tonight, they might have taken this game a little lightly. When you let a team hang around, they play tougher.”
Walpole went ahead 1-0 with 3:57 left in the first period on a power play goal from Tommy McNamara, who found a seam through traffic gathered in front of Riley. Positioned just inside the blue line with seconds remaining on the man-advantage, McNamara collected a feed from Tom Corcoran and quickly released a seeing-eye wrister that beat Riley high to the stick side. Matt Bender also picked up a helper.
The second period was all Dedham. The Marauders outshot their opponent 14-9 and scored a pair of nearly identical goals to jump ahead, 2-1.
Lugging the puck along the left wing, forward Justin Nee gained the line and took aim at goaltender Matt Nannicelli. Inexplicably, the Rebel defense backed up and conceded the shot. Nee obliged, knotting the score with a laser, unassisted.
The Dedham and Walpole High boys hockey teams skated to a dramatic finish Saturday night as the Marauders struck in the final seconds to forge a 3-3 tie with the Rebels.
Trailing by a goal in the waning moments, Dedham was granted a power play and then made it 6-on-4 by pulling goalie Jimmy Riley for an extra attacker. The strategy paid dividends when Timmy Corrado crashed the net and scored the tying goal with just 14 seconds left.
The draw moved Dedham to 2-7-1 overall heading into tonight's contest at Milton. In most instances, a tie score leaves something to be desired for the participants and spectators alike, but for Dedham, getting its first point in BSC play tempered recent woes. In three straight defeats leading up to Saturday night’s clash with the Rebels at Flood Rink, the Marauders had been outscored by a wide 23-1 margin.
“Obviously, we were thrilled to get a tie at the end,” said Dedham coach Paul Podolski, who pointed out that he had to juggle his lines due to ranks decimated by injuries. “It good was to pull this out after three bad games in a row.”
It was the fourth tie in nine outings for Walpole, coming on the heels of a tough 5-1 loss to Milton. The Rebels host rival Norwood tonight.
“We’ve been harping on our team all week that they need to treat every game like they would the playoffs,” said Walpole coach Jamie O’Leary, whose team moved to 2-3-4 overall. “I think tonight, they might have taken this game a little lightly. When you let a team hang around, they play tougher.”
Walpole went ahead 1-0 with 3:57 left in the first period on a power play goal from Tommy McNamara, who found a seam through traffic gathered in front of Riley. Positioned just inside the blue line with seconds remaining on the man-advantage, McNamara collected a feed from Tom Corcoran and quickly released a seeing-eye wrister that beat Riley high to the stick side. Matt Bender also picked up a helper.
The second period was all Dedham. The Marauders outshot their opponent 14-9 and scored a pair of nearly identical goals to jump ahead, 2-1.
Lugging the puck along the left wing, forward Justin Nee gained the line and took aim at goaltender Matt Nannicelli. Inexplicably, the Rebel defense backed up and conceded the shot. Nee obliged, knotting the score with a laser, unassisted.
Nearing the end of the second, senior captain Jason Riley echoed Nee’s effort with a solo rush of his own resulting in a go-ahead goal. Again, Walpole collapsed to the middle allowing for ample skating room on the perimeter.
“Yeah, that’s been our style,” said O’Leary, when asked about the tactic. “We like our goalies to face shots from the outside. Tonight, they got a couple by us but over the course of a season, I’ll take the percentage that our goalies will save those more often than not.
In the third, Walpole cranked up the intensity and began to wrestle the game back. Patrick Baker struck first from John White, knotting the game at 2. The Rebels were skating on the man advantage when Dedham’s Riley collided heavily, sustained an apparent knee injury, and was left writhing in pain on the ice. The officials allowed play to continue, essentially handing Walpole a 5-on-3, which yielded Baker’s goal.
With less than five minutes remaining in the game, a resilient Walpole squad recaptured the lead, 3-2, on a goal from White, who chipped in a rebound during a scrum in front of Dedham goalie Jimmy Riley, with Corcoran and Bender assisting.
During a chippy third period, penalties galore were handed out to offenders on both squads but when all was said-and-done, Dedham emerged with Leahy’s game-tying power-play goal from Nee and Riley, who had recovered in time to play a role.
“We’ve spent a lot of time working on our power play,” said Podolski. “We have Justin Nee and Jason Riley and they’re both pretty clever so we were glad to exploit that and use it to our advantage.”
