By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
The Timberwolves put another tally in the win column on Wednesday night with a 4-0 victory over Needham, improving to 7-8-3. It was a bounce back performance following a loss to Marshfield.
“I think we had our legs tonight,” said Head Coach Ron Dowd. “We just didn’t have the jump in our legs [versus Marshfield]. I think tonight we did a lot of the little things right.”
Walpole’s first advantage came just under six minutes into the game when the Rockets committed a penalty; however, the offense was not able to muster up any great opportunities out of it. Right before intermission, senior Joe Finkelstein was able to give his team the lead with a goal.
The second period saw the Timberwolves digging itself into a hole on multiple occasions with penalties. Luckily, it was able to climb out every time. Walpole’s defense, led by junior Mike Roof in net, had another tremendous performance to keep Needham scoreless. It’s the Timberwolves’ second shutout in the last five games.
“[We kept] a small gap,” said captain Tyler Dacko. “Needham is usually a tough team – they’re pretty fast, so we gapped up quickly and took away some of their time and space and locked them off.”
Dacko also contributed on the attacking side of the ice, drilling a slap shot from the perimeter to give Walpole a two-goal lead. Shortly thereafter, sophomore Nico Govoni put the puck past the goalie to extend the team’s lead even further. Needham made a goalie switch as a result but there would be no momentum change as a result.
Finkelstein capped off Walpole’s great offensive performance with his second goal of the game in the third period. Dowd attributed his team’s execution to piecing together the work that has been going on the whole season.
“You’re not scoring from the walls,” preached Dowd. “You have to get in front of the net and it’s something we’ve really been harping on all year but particularly the last two weeks and we’ve been doing it a little bit better. Hopefully it continues. We have a couple games left and [then we’ll] get ready for the playoffs.
Walpole suffered a loss to North Attleboro in their subsequent game and played Mansfield on Tuesday to wrap up the regular season. As it currently stands, the team is in a firm position to host at least one playoff game.
