North Middlesex Overpowers Wahconah in State Final
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The Wahconah hockey team's hot ride came to fast crash at the Division 3-A State Final.
North Middlesex (19-3-2) scored twice in the first 39 seconds en route to a 12-0 victory and outshot the Western Massaschusetts champions, 38-14, on Thursday evening at the MassMutual Center, the home of American Hockey League's Springfield Falcons.
"We got matched up against a team with a lot more offense than we anticipated, but they were every bit as good as advertised defensively," coach Don Disbrow said.
North Middlesex dominated the play in all zones and overpowered Wahconah (16-7-1) early on.
Just 19 seconds in, Ryan McCarty's shot — the first shot of the game — deflected up and over the head of goaltender Roger Stedman, landing in the goal for first blood.
Then 20 seconds later, after Stedman went down to make a save, Danny McNamara snuck the puck past Stedman as he attempted to lay down to freeze the play.
McNamara led all scorers with four goals. Stedman, was pulled four minutes, 10 seconds into the game after the fourth goal. Stedman stopped five of nine shots in the first. Nico Romano stopped five of the six shots he saw.
North Middlesex conquered the neutral zone, stalling the Wahconah offense -- who didn't register a shot on net until 9:28 into the game -- and limiting its chances.
In the last quarter of the period, Wahconah's biggest opportunity came when forward Mike Bloom deked through the neutral zone, absorbed a hit at the left center and got the puck to junior Dan Flynn at the center of the blue line. However his shot stayed at ice level and right to goaltender Ryan Twomey.
Twomey saved five shots in the first period and the beginning of the second, and after a break on the bench, saved one more in the third.
The second period was just as rough for Wahconah. Less than a minute in, McNamara scored again, banking the puck off Romano's stick-side pad.
About 30 seconds later, Flynn was sent to the box for the only call in a very physical game for roughing. Six seconds into the power play, he rejoined his team after McNamera scored again.
North Middlesex scored another two in the second, and buried another four in third on both Romero and Stedman. Wahconah meanwhile, continued to struggle to get into the offensive zone and was shut out for only the second time this season.
Despite the loss, Wahconah had its best season ever, winning its first Western Massachusetts Division 3-A title with a thrilling third-period rally to win 7-6 against Chicopee and 13 straight games coming into the state final.
This year's team was the first to include four other different schools — McCann, Mount Greylock, Drury and Hoosac Valley — following the end of St. Joseph's program after last season.
"We still have a large part of our core back, we certainly learned some things about ourselves tonight — what we need to do better, but I don't want to take anything away from our kids because they worked their butts off all year and they did everything we asked and they played excellent through three games, and the better team won," Disbrow said.