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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Outside of No. 6 seed Marshfield winning the bracket on Sunday in sudden-death overtime, the talk of Division I South boys hockey in the last week or so had been the No. 8-seeded Xaverian Hawks, following dramatic wins over Framingham (4-3) in round-one and Wellesley (3-1) in the quarterfinals.
However, Xaverian’s run through the sectional playoffs came to a tough end on Thursday night at Gallo Arena in Bourne as the Hawks fell 3-2 to Braintree in the South semifinals despite carrying a 2-0 lead into the third period.
Following a scoreless first period, sophomore forward Matty Ryan drew first blood at 9:17 of the second with a wicked wrist shot from the left faceoff dot to grab the 1-0 lead for Xaverian. A little over three minutes later at 12:11, sophomore forward Ryan Pomposelli tucked home a rebound under the pad of Braintree goaltender Owen Cuddyer to double Xaverian’s lead to 2-0 at the second intermission.
Despite Xaverian seizing all of the game’s momentum with two late goals at the end of the second, Braintree put on a comeback for the ages during period three, begun by senior captain Shawn Leslie with a goal just 24 seconds in to cut the deficit to 2-1 for the Wamps.
A little under two minutes later with 12:44 remaining, Dara Canavan drew even for Braintree with a wrist-shot via the five hole of Xaverian goaltender Anthony Scott. Just 1:06 following the game-tying goal by Canavan, Aidan Flynn gave the Wamps their first lead of the hockey game at 3-2 with a snipe up high, as the Hawks suddenly found themselves down a goal with 11:38 left in regulation and their season now on the line.
After Braintree took the lead, Xaverian coach Dave Spinale called a timeout to try and calm things down. Following the timeout, the Hawks amped up their offensive pressure and began putting an onslaught of shots on net. Unfortunately, Cuddyer had the period of a lifetime for Braintree, turning aside each of Xaverian’s 18 third period shots.
The Hawks killed off a late penalty and pulled Scott from the net for an extra attacker with a little under two minutes to play in search of the tying goal. A huge glove save and cover-up by Cuddyer on Josh Barton with 38 seconds to play kept the game 3-2 in favor of Braintree. The Wamps cleared the zone on the ensuing faceoff and Xaverian was unable to generate another shot on goal on its final rush up the ice. Braintree hung on for the comeback victory.
While it certainly was not an ideal way to have the season come to an end, the Hawks showed a lot of grit by battling back from a mid-year slump with a seven-game unbeaten streak (4-0-3) to finish the regular season, as well as handing the No. 1 overall seeded Wellesley Raiders the keys to the golf cart with a big-time road upset.
There’s definitely a lot for the Xaverian boys to be proud of from this season.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
Pictured against Bridgewater-Raynham, Ryan Pomposelli (22) scored Xaverian’s second goal of the evening on Thursday night in Bourne to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead before an epic comeback by Braintree put an end to Xaverian’s season. Photo by Mike Flanagan
