By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Reporter
A back-and-forth battle ended with Needham coming up just short of victory as they took a 6-3 loss to Natick. Needham takes a hit in the standings, moving to 8-4 and the Redhawks overtaking first place in the Bay State Conference from the Rockets.
The game broke in favor of the enemy first as a Needham turnover just under four minutes into the game, led to a breakaway goal for Natick. The goal sparked the start of big hits from both teams and the atmosphere growing more intense.
“That’s what we like,” said head coach Mike Hoban. “We’re a physical team. There was energy out there and a lot of physical play. It’s how we want to play, so we like it when other teams come and want to do the same thing.”
With an early one goal deficit, Needham did not take long to answer with a goal of its own. Senior Matt Rutter tallied his tenth goal of the season with a shot from right in front of the Redhawks’ goalie.
An opportunity for the lead presented itself with under four minutes left in the first period as the puck found its way to just outside the goalie crease, with a missed shot on net ensuing.
The start of the second period came with a great start for the Rockets. After possessing the puck in the offensive zone for the vast majority of the first three minutes, Natick gave Needham a 5-on-4 advantage with a tripping penalty. To the demise of the Rockets, Natick capitalized once again, this time on a short-handed goal.
“When you play against a good team like that, we know that they’re gonna capitalize [on] any chance we give them,” said captain Niall O’Malley. “So that's kind of what the game came down to.”
Towards the end of the period, Needham was successful on a power kill and captain Tommy Peabody tied the game up with a goal just moments later.
The third period saw Natick getting the lead but an answer from Needham, once again. This time it was another goal for Rutter.
Natick ran away with the game as they scored the following three goals to put everything away. Despite the loss, Hoban sees positives and plenty of time to turn things back to winning.
“I thought we played well," said Hoban. “We battled hard. It had a little bit of a playoff atmosphere and feeling to it. Overall, I thought we played well… “There’s a lot of hockey left… [We have] a bunch of league games coming up and [we just need to be] ready to go on Monday at practice and ready for Milton on Wednesday.”
Needham saw 3-4-6 Milton on January 8, winning 5-2. “I know they’re dealing with some injuries right now [but] we’re definitely not taking them lightly at all,” said O’Malley. “Hopefully we can get the job done.”
