By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
One of the more historical high school hockey rivalries in the state of Massachusetts had its latest chapter written on Wednesday night, as the Wellesley Raiders netted three late goals to stun Needham and secure the 2-0 season sweep over their arch rivals to the East in dramatic fashion Despite entering Wednesday night’s contest on the heals of a tough four-game losing streak, the Rockets (6-11-1) came ready to play and brought about an intense and serious of an attitude as a team possibly could right from the start. Mike Hoban’s bunch came out flying with an incredibly aggressive fore check and neutral zone trap, causing multiple breakdowns and turnovers in the Wellesley end and allowing the Rockets to generate sustained offensive zonetime.
The Raiders (14-4-0), meanwhile, entered their date with Needham on Wednesday night winners of four straight. Like all good teams do, however, when the Rockets brought a physical and aggressive energy with them to Babson on Wednesday evening, the Raiders stayed composed. After Needham was able to disrupt a majority of the Wellesley breakouts throughout the majority of the first period, Wellesley countered by spreading the ice on breakouts and using the glass to get the puck out into the neutral zone and allow a line change rather than the normal collection of tape-to-tape passes you often see when teams clear their end. By doing this, Wellesley was able to thwart the Rockets from any more neutral zone breakdowns and extra short-ice odd-man rushes.
Despite Wellesley’s counter to the aggressive tempo put on by the Rockets in the early going, it was Needham who struck first, as senior Henry Long deflected a shot from the point with just under three minutes remaining in the period for his second goal of the season, putting Needham ahead 1-0 at the first intermission.
Following the goal by Long, both goaltenders put on a clinic, as Needham’s Dylan Jones (21 saves) and Wellesley’s Andrew Hubbard (19 saves) kept outdoing each other with phenomenal saves in the second period to keep the score 1-0 in favor of Needham headed into the final frame of regulation.
With three minutes left to play and still down one, the Raiders fell into desperation mode in search of the tying goal, and they found it through the slick hands of Liam Morgan who dangled in front and sniped a shot blocker side to knot the score at one. Less than a minute later, the Raiders worked the puck into the Needham end and generated a good cycle down low. The puck was worked back out to the point to senior defenseman and captain Zack Doughty who fired a shot that beat Jones glove side to give the Raiders their first lead of the hockey game at 2-1. With 1:30 to play, Needham pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker in search of knotting the game back up at two, but their hopes were dashed when Raider sophomore defenseman Nathan Brown cleared the puck from the blue line and into the empty net to give Wellesley a 3-1 lead and preserve the amazing come-from-behind victory on senior night.
