Just as it appeared the MIAA would have to omit Dedham High from its girls hockey tournament brackets for the first time ever, the Marauders have given a jolt to their postseason hopes.
On life support only two weeks ago after a loss to Newton North, Dedham has gone unbeaten in its last three entering last night’s game in Walpole, including a wild 8-8 tie with Norwood last Wednesday and a 7-2 rout of Natick on Saturday.
At 5-8-1 overall, the road to the tournament is still a difficult one. After facing the Rebels, Dedham wraps up Bay State Conference play with home games against Milton on Saturday and Needham on Wednesday before heading to Rockland for the Cougar Classic with St. Mary’s Bay View Academy (RI), Norwell and Ursuline.
The Marauders need to earn eight out of a possible 10 points in those five games to qualify for a 13th consecutive season.
Colleen Downing’s goal with 1:20 left put the Marauders up 8-7, but Norwood’s Karyn Colomey denied Dedham the full two points, burying equalizer on the rebound of an Emily Kelly shot during a 6-on-4 situation with 5.1 seconds left.
"The girls feel like they won the game. They battled back, they kept coming back," said Dedham coach Christine Gurskis after the tie with the Mustangs. "In the first game (a 7-1 loss), Norwood just overpowered us, put in three goals in the third period and just deflated us. My bench has never been this way, they were just so positive and fired up saying we could do this. If anything, going into the remaining six games they have raised the bar a lot for themselves."
The game was played at a frenetic place early as the team combined for 13 goals in the first two periods, with Norwood leading 4-2 after one and the Marauders rallying for a 7-6 edge at the end of the second.
Things calmed down for a while in the third, until combusting again with three goals in the final 2:12. Hayes crashed the net to power home a Lisa Moynihan rebound to tie the game at 7-7, but Downing pouncing on a rebound in front to answer less than a minute late out Dedham back ahead.
But the Marauders were whistled for a costly penalty with 51.2 seconds left, allowing the Norwood to pull the goalie and bring on the extra skater for a 6-on-4 advantage.
Sam Girard nearly sealed it for Dedham with 18 seconds left but her long bid for an empty-netter and a fourth goal went just wide, allowing Norwood a final rush. Dedham goalie Jamie Carty stopped Kelly’s initial try but was unable to snare the rebounds, and it fell to a charging Colomey in the slot.
Just as it appeared the MIAA would have to omit Dedham High from its girls hockey tournament brackets for the first time ever, the Marauders have given a jolt to their postseason hopes.
On life support only two weeks ago after a loss to Newton North, Dedham has gone unbeaten in its last three entering last night’s game in Walpole, including a wild 8-8 tie with Norwood last Wednesday and a 7-2 rout of Natick on Saturday.
At 5-8-1 overall, the road to the tournament is still a difficult one. After facing the Rebels, Dedham wraps up Bay State Conference play with home games against Milton on Saturday and Needham on Wednesday before heading to Rockland for the Cougar Classic with St. Mary’s Bay View Academy (RI), Norwell and Ursuline.
The Marauders need to earn eight out of a possible 10 points in those five games to qualify for a 13th consecutive season.
Colleen Downing’s goal with 1:20 left put the Marauders up 8-7, but Norwood’s Karyn Colomey denied Dedham the full two points, burying equalizer on the rebound of an Emily Kelly shot during a 6-on-4 situation with 5.1 seconds left.
"The girls feel like they won the game. They battled back, they kept coming back," said Dedham coach Christine Gurskis after the tie with the Mustangs. "In the first game (a 7-1 loss), Norwood just overpowered us, put in three goals in the third period and just deflated us. My bench has never been this way, they were just so positive and fired up saying we could do this. If anything, going into the remaining six games they have raised the bar a lot for themselves."
The game was played at a frenetic place early as the team combined for 13 goals in the first two periods, with Norwood leading 4-2 after one and the Marauders rallying for a 7-6 edge at the end of the second.
Things calmed down for a while in the third, until combusting again with three goals in the final 2:12. Hayes crashed the net to power home a Lisa Moynihan rebound to tie the game at 7-7, but Downing pouncing on a rebound in front to answer less than a minute late out Dedham back ahead.
But the Marauders were whistled for a costly penalty with 51.2 seconds left, allowing the Norwood to pull the goalie and bring on the extra skater for a 6-on-4 advantage.
Sam Girard nearly sealed it for Dedham with 18 seconds left but her long bid for an empty-netter and a fourth goal went just wide, allowing Norwood a final rush. Dedham goalie Jamie Carty stopped Kelly’s initial try but was unable to snare the rebounds, and it fell to a charging Colomey in the slot.
"You got to get it in front of the net to get the goal," said Norwood coach Tim Coskren, whose team booked its spot in the tournament with the tie. "They were blocking the front of the net pretty well, stacking in front. We just figured if we got it in front of the net somehow we could get a rebound and someone slap it in. It doesn’t have to be pretty."
After Dedham’s Meg Corrado surprised the Mustangs with a quick goal just 1:39 in, Norwood responded with two goals in 13 seconds as Kelly picked the top near corner from the left circle and Hayes finished herself on a 2-on-0.
Girard got the first of her three with a thrilling end-to-end rush to tie the game at 2-2, but Norwood answered back twice as Kelly completed her hat trick before the first period was over, converting from in close on a Kacie Smith pass from behind the net, and then with a shot right after a faceoff win to put Norwood ahead 4-2.
Dedham began the second with three straight goals. Girard scored twice on blistering slap shots from the point, one just as a power play expired and once on the power play, and Courtney Sullivan put the Marauders ahead 5-4 on a rebound, prompting a Norwood timeout with 10:29 left in the second period.
The teams proceeded to trade goals twice the rest of the period. Smith banged in her own rebound to make it 6-all only to see Christina Maloof restore the lead for Dedham.
Colomey registered her first of the night with a great move to the front of the net after blowing past a defender along the right boards, finding the net with the backhand. Dedham took the lead back yet again, however, when Sullivan shoveled in a rebound on her backhand while falling to the ice with seven seconds left in the period.
The second line of Sullivan, Corrado and Meg Simone provided a big lift with three goals on the night.
"That’s what I have been waiting for and now that Meghan Simone is back from her concussion – this is her third game back – you can see that they just really clicked, that line has always clicked," said Gurskis "I think if we had had her healthy all along we would have seen production from them sooner and things would have been different, but it is how it is and we have dug ourselves a little hole, but that’s the thing with this team, the inexperienced players just need to build a little confidence."
Despite being outshot 12-4 in the third period, but Dedham held a 34-33 edge in shots on net overall. Carty made 25 save for the Marauders while Norwood counterpart Sam Baturin stopped 26 shots.
Dedham benefited from Natick being without its top two goaltender due to injury in Saturday night’s win.
Downing led the way offensively with a hat trick, adding two assists for a five-point night. Girard registered two goals and two assists, Sullivan and Maloof each had a goal and an assist while Simone assisted on a pair of scores.
