By Ken Chaisson
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
The town of Dartmouth received 37 inches of snow from the recent nor’easter. Schools were closed all week with expected delays stretching into the first week of March. That extended the playing of their first round state tournament game against Walpole into Saturday February 28.
For Walpole, it was worth the wait.
Senior captain Michael Conners buried a wrister from the right faceoff circle to send the Walpole faithful home happy with a 3-2 overtime victory.
The overflowing Walpole student section was frenzied with joy when they realized Conners’ blast had found the back of the net. While Walpole (9-10-1) had carried the play during the first period and the second period was a draw, the third period was decidedly in Dartmouth’s (8-12) favor. There wasn’t much to cheer about for the hometown team.
Then overtime (OT) started. The teams switch ends on the same ice surface. They play 4-on-4 for eight minutes. There is plenty of open ice. Then Walpole incurred a ‘too many men on the ice’ penalty which made it 4-on-3 for two minutes in Dartmouth’s favor. The crowd sensed that things were not looking good. But Walpole’s penalty kill units were up to the task backboned by senior captain Mike Roof in net. The Timberwolves fended off Dartmouth’s advances and shortly thereafter had a breakout of their own. Walpole carried the puck into the Indians’ zone only to be stymied by a sliding Dartmouth defenseman. However, the biscuit slid away from his body to the lurking Conners who pounced on the loose puck and deposited it into the top left hand corner. Bedlam then ensued. Such are the turns of fate.
Senior captain Danny Morris opened the scoring with a shot from the left faceoff circle that snuck by the Dartmouth goaltender to the short side at 8:27 to go in the first period. Walpole went into the first intermission ahead 1-0.
Dartmouth tied it up at 10:04 of the second period on a breakaway coming out of a line change. The Dartmouth bench was at the Walpole end for this period. When the lines changed, the new Dartmouth skater started out behind the Walpole defense. The Indians capitalized on the breakaway to draw even.
Walpole jumped back in front with 2:39 remaining when sophomore Tommy O’Brien scored on a nice sauce pass from Conners. Walpole retained their one goal lead into the second intermission.
They were 15 minutes from glorious victory. However, just 1:13 into the third period Dartmouth knotted the score by picking up a loose puck in the slot and barely pocketing it by Roof. Dartmouth carried the play for the remainder of the period with Roof stopping all opportunities. It was on to overtime and Conners’ heroics.
Conners had himself a game to remember with the winning overtime goal along with assisting on the two earlier tallies.
Ninth seeded Walpole moved on to play 8th seeded Barnstable in the next round on Monday March 2. Barnstable beat 25th seeded Minnechaug, 5-2, in their playoff game.
