Watertown/Wayland Hockey deserves so much credit, in my opinion. From the coaching staff on down to the last player on the roster, there has been little to no quit despite winning very infrequently. They play in a very competitive and physical league with a young and undersized roster, yet they always hang tough, even when the score might indicate otherwise. With the regular season winding down and still no league wins next to their name, Watertown/Wayland found the secret sauce against a Wakefield squad, who in addition to clearly getting out-played, left their A-game, let alone their C-game back in Wakefield. Final score, which is music to the ears of EVERYONE associated with Watertown/Wayland, Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 2.
It started very rocky for the Raiders. SIX seconds in captain Luke Egan was sent to the penalty box for hooking. But the Raiders executed a good kill, and junior Goalie Finnley MacDonald, called upon all season long to make quality and quantity saves, faced two good scoring chances and steered them aside. But a funny thing happened on the way to getting back to full strength —the Raiders failed to execute the transition from Egan leaving the box to a line shift, and were immediately back on the penalty kill, guilty of a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
Now, if you believe in fate, I’d recommend the story of the rest of the period as proof that it exists. The Raiders not only killed the second penalty, but settled down, played solid hockey, and at 11:14 went on the power play thanks to — yup, a Wakefield penalty for too many men on the ice. And 28 seconds later they were whistled for a tripping, giving Watertown/Wayland a two-man advantage. And what did the Raiders do better than Wakefield with their power play opportunities? That’s right hockey fans, they scored, first a 5-on-3 power play goal courtesy of a Griffin Wood wrister, and then they pulled off the daily double as Michael Philbin scored a 5-on-4 power play goal to make it 2-0.
Now, to be clear, I’m neither making light or making fun of what I’m about to say, but there have been very few opportunities to say “Raiders are up 2-0 with two minutes left in the period.” It sounds good, right? Well, how about this: Raiders 3, Wakefield 0 after one period of play. That’s because an innocent wrist shot off the lefty stick of Luke Egan from the slot, 20 feet out, with 44 seconds left somehow found it’s way into the net. The Wakefield goalie acted as though he never saw it, and that might be entirely so, but he seemed a little shell-shocked in general after giving up three goals in a minute and forty-four seconds.
Wakefield entered this game 4-8 in the league and 8-8 overall, and sitting 20th in the MIAA power rankings. The Raiders entered the game 30th in the power rankings, but Wakefield almost seemed to act as though they could turn it on anytime they want against a team with no league wins. That was not to be the case on this night. Luke Egan got the second period scored started with a power play goal, a beauty using his skating and stick-handling skills to make it 4-0 three minutes into the period. Griffin Wood made it a hat trick for himself when he tipped in a shot from the point by Theodore Henrich, Isaac Maillis scored a power play goal, the team’s fourth of the night, and Egan added his second of the second period with 41 seconds remaining. If you like how it sounded to say “3-0 Watertown/Wayland after one” then try on “7-0 Watertown/Wayland after two” for size.
By rule, if leading after a period (and perhaps only at the start of the final period — I wasn’t able to get clarification) by six or more goals, the clock runs the entire length of that period, even if the team trailing cuts the lead to under six goals. The slaughter rule is intended to protect teams in instances where the contest is truly one-sided. Was Wakefield in need of protection? Probably not. It was a great night for the Raiders and a really off night for Wakefield, but the rules are the rules. And when Wakefield scored twice a minute apart at the start of the third period, I bet they sure wished they had woken up sooner. It’s hard enough to make up a seven-goal deficit in one period, much less do it with the clock running. Regardless, the Raiders settled down and got back to the business of playing solid hockey and keeping/getting the puck out of their own zone and limiting Wakefield’s scoring chances. Quicker than you can say Watertown/Wayland, the clock ran out and the Raiders could celebrate a 7-2 win.
The Raiders finish their league schedule on Saturday night, on the road, against 5-11-2 Melrose, ranked 21st in the D2 power rankings. They finish the regular season with a non-league contest next week and then await word on whether they qualify for the D3 Tournament. Congratulations to the Raiders for a great win Wednesday night, a win very much deserved!!
1 2 3 – F
Wakefield 0 0 2 – 2
Watertown/Wayland 3 4 0 – 7
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Scoring Summary
1st Period
Watertown/Wayland 1 Wakefield 0… PPG, Griffin Wood from Isaac Maillis @ 12:32
Watertown/Wayland 2 Wakefield 0… PPG, Michael Philbin from Logan Desrosiers @ 12:56
Watertown/Wayland 3 Wakefield 0… Griffin Wood, Unassisted @ 14:16
2nd Period
Watertown/Wayland 4 Wakefield 0… PPG, Luke Egan from Lukas Wynn @ 3:08
Watertown/Wayland 5 Wakefield 0… Griffin Wood from Theodore Henrich @ 9:04
Watertown/Wayland 6 Wakefield 0… PPG, Isaac Maillis from Logan Desrosiers @ 13:30
Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 0… Luke Egan from Isaac Maillis & Lukas Wynn @ 14:19
3rd Period
Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 1… Palmer @ 1:00
Watertown/Wayland 7 Wakefield 2... Taylor @ 2:00
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Remaining Regular Season Games
Saturday February 14 @ Melrose, 7:30 pm
Wednesday February 18 vs Dover-Sherborn @ 5:45 pm