By Meghan Foley
The boys’ hockey team entered the playoffs as the 31st seed, but you wouldn’t have known it. On February 24th, they hosted 34th-seeded Medford after knocking them out in the Preliminary last year 5–1. This year they took a 4–1 win in the same situation and advanced to face the 2nd-seeded Xaverian Hawks on their home ice at Canton Ice House. Although the Hawks came out on top in the end, the Raiders gave them a run for their money, leading for half of the game before taking the 4–3 loss.
Wellesley had a worrisome moment in the first period when junior Brady Anderson was down on the ice for several minutes, appearing to have suffered an injury to the right side of his jaw, but he would later return to the game with a bandage.
Although Xaverian (15–4–1) was favored, the Raiders (9-11-1) scored first when, near the end of the first period, junior Aiden O’Donnell put away the first goal unassisted.
In the second period, junior defenseman Finn Reilly’s shot was stopped but the Raiders followed up and O’Donnell was able to squeak it by the goalie, increasing their lead to 2–0, with assists being attributed to sophomore Cam Lynch and Reilly.
The Hawks responded a few minutes later with their own goal before two solid stops by Wellesley goalie Conor Foley. Five minutes after their first, an unfortunate puck gave Xaverian possession feet from the net and they scored their second goal in a one-on-one, and increased their lead again a minute later. Good coverage by Foley and tight defense by Mattias Demeo kept the Hawks from another goal, but the Raiders left the second period down 3–2.
In the third period, Xaverian added a fourth goal to their streak and things looked bleak for the Raiders, who had a two-goal deficit and only a little over five minutes to go. Still, they continued pressure with a few saves and shots. Sophomore Owen Keating nearly earned a goal, and the Raiders were able to get the final point when Finn Reilly scored with 58 seconds left in the third period, assisted by Aiden O’Donnell. At the end of the game, the team and coaches huddled on the ice while Wellesley fans remained in the stands, cheering for them when they disbanded and skated off to the locker room.
Although the Raiders were knocked out and this brought an end to the postseason for Wellesley, it was an impressive showing by the team, who at one point lead the 2nd-seeded team by two goals as the 31st seed and ended with a 4–3 score. The Hawks were eliminated in their next matchup, losing to 15th-seeded Marshfield (15–6–1) 2–0 on Sunday.
