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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Last season, the story of the Bay State Conference and maybe Massachusetts high school hockey as a whole was Walpole’s incredible run to a Super Eight berth via an undefeated regular season. In 2017-2018, the script has yet to be written as to whether or not a Bay State Conference team will qualify for the Super Eight for a second consecutive year. So far, though, the main storyline of the league has been the Wellesley Raiders, who entered their date with Walpole on Wednesday’s snow day eve still unbeaten at 4-0-2.
Behind a late tie-breaking goal by Ryan Keator with 2:41 to play, the Raiders (5-0-3) continued their unbeaten ways and gained a massive two points over the Rebels (4-2-4) in the Bay State Conference standings with a 3-1 victory.
Just 3:54 into the contest, sophomore forward Drew Cohen drew first blood for Wellesley with a goal on a rebound to put the Raiders ahead 1-0. The Raiders then killed off a late Rebel power play to enter the first intermission ahead by one.
The second period saw stout goaltending and incredible defensive play from both sides, as the Rebels and Raiders blocked shot after shot and did all the little things well defensively to allow the game to enter the third period with the Raiders still narrowly ahead at 1-0.
With 4:28 remaining in the third period, defenseman Timmy Duffy finally got the Rebels on the board as the senior hammered home a one-timer from the point to tie game at one.
Just 1:47 later with 2:41 remaining, Ryan Keator fired home a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot to give Wellesley back the lead at 2-1 and seized back all of the momentum for the Raiders.
Walpole head coach Ron Dowd called a timeout to try and regroup his team, and opted to pull the goaltender for the extra attacker in search of the tying goal with about 1:20 to play. Unfortunately for Walpole, Wellesley’s Joey Siemering extended the lead to 3-1 via an empty-net goal with 40 seconds to play to all but seal the two points for the Raiders.
On Saturday, the Rebels rebounded with a 5-2 win at home over Weymouth, as Ryan Boyajian (two goals, one assist), senior captain Matt Morris (goal, two assists), and Cullen McGlynn (goal, two assists) carried the Rebels to their fourth victory of the season.
Meanwhile, Wellesley fought to a scoreless tie against Braintree at Babson College on Saturday to improve to 5-0-3 and keep their unbeaten streak to start the season alive.
At the time of print, the Raiders will be back in action on January 10 when they travel to Milton before hosting Weymouth on January 13, while the Rebels will travel to Framingham on January 13 before hosting Oliver Ames on January 15.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
