Wahconah Icers Hold On Against Mount Everett
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The Wahconah hockey team defeated Mount Everett Friday evening, 4-3, at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.
Wahconah was putting up early shots in the first period, but Everett goalie Jonah Swotes was putting a stop to them until 4 minutes, 22 seconds in, when Wahconah's Dan Flynn set up Nate Lapine for the game's first goal.
In the second minute of the second period, Mount Everett had a two-man advantage after Devon Baittini and Brett Pecor were sent to the box for a hit from behind and tripping; Jacob Malicky was able to put one in for the Eagles to tie it 1-1.
“We have to do a better job staying out of the box,” Wahconah coach Don Disbrow said. “I told the kids, you know referees are often like umpires, they’re going to call games differently and some call them tighter and some call them lose and you have to play into that.
“If they’re calling a close game you have to make sure you can’t have those borderline hits, so I told them to just get away from the hitting all together.”
Wahconah totaled seven more minutes of penalty time in the second and third periods. Another Mount Everett goal was scored on a man up advantage in the third period from Jake Corcoran to put the score at 4-2.
The second period saw two more goals from Wahconah; Andrew Beaudoin slid one in right in front of the Eagles net, assisted by Flynn, and then, with 2:16 remaining in the period, Flynn put one in assisted by Lapine and Sean Davis to put the score at 3-1 going into the third.
After Corcoran’s goal in the third, which put the score at 3-2 the game got a little chippy. Midway through the period, a Mount Everett player was whistled for fighting behind the Wahconah net; he left the game for game misconduct.
Mike Bloom for Wahconah netted its last goal with 2:45 remaining in the game; Mount Everett called a timeout shortly after.
With 39 seconds remaining on the clock, Noah Hunter for Mount Everett sent in a shot from the right wing that looked as though Wahconah goalie Nico Romano got a glove on it before it crossed the line, but the referees called it in putting the score at 4-3.
Mount Everett was looking for the opportunity to pull their goalie in the final seconds and get an extra skater to potentially tie the game; with 26 seconds left Wahconah took a timeout.
“We wanted to make sure that we didn’t have a defenseman back in the corner because that’s useless, if they puck goes back there they can play with it all they want, that’s not dangerous,” Disbrow said. “We wanted to make sure everybody was up on the line and that all the guys were accounted for.”
Wahconah was able to hold the Eagles in those final 26 seconds and take away the 4-3 win.