The Walpole Girls Hockey team had a nail-biting finish in their first-round playoff game. On Wednesday, the Rebels upset the fifteen seen, Medfield, in the Division II State Tournament. The game was full of high intensity plays and close calls, and Walpole finally defeated the Warriors in a shootout.
The Rebels dominated the first half, outshooting the Warriors 9 to 5, and kept the puck in their offensive end for a majority of the first half. Very few good shots were put on net by Medfield, compared to numerous close shots from Walpole, many of which came from junior Captian Brooke Matherson, who nearly missed the top corner of the net countless times. Medfield knew that they had to step up their pace of play in order win, since their outstanding goalie had stood on her head in the first half and turned down all of the Rebel’s scoring attempts.
With two minutes left in the second period, the Warriors were just barely able to slide the puck by senior Captain Bethany Welch off a rebound to give them the lead, one goal to zero. The Rebels still outshot their opponent 8 to 6, but had yet to put one by Medfield’s goalie going into the third period.
Walpole came out in the third period with even more intensity than the beginning of the game, knowing that their season was on the line. With 12:53 left in regulation time, junior Jenna Donahue dangled two defenders, shot, and was able to put the puck in the net off the rebound off of the goalie’s pads and flicked it over the goal line, to tie the game at 1-1. With 4:42 left in the game, freshman Olivia McMillan was called for a penalty for tripping, and then a minute later, senior Captain Michaela Tosone was called for a penalty for checking. The Warriors had 30 seconds of having two more players on the ice than Walpole, but Walpole’s penalty kill played extremely well, and was able to keep the puck out of the net until both penalties were over. Welch had an outstanding save on a puck that looked bound for the upper corner at the end of MacMillan’s penalty.
For the last two minutes of the game, the Rebels dominated the play and had numerous scoring oppertunities in the last two minutes of regualation time, but yet again the Medfield goalie kept her team in the game to send it into overtime.
Heading into sudden-death overtime, both teams were willing to give it all they had in order to put a shot by the opposing goalie. Firing shot after shot on the Warrior’s goalie, Walpole picked it up where they left off in the third period: in their offensive end.
With 8:21 left in overtime, Walpole was given a penalty shot, after a Medfield player sat on the puck in front of her defensive net, preventing Walpole from possibly scoring. Tosone was given the opportunity to take the shot, in which the player skates the puck in from center ice and has one chance to shot. As Tosone was skating towards the net with the puck, the puck got stuck on the ice and caught in her feet, so the referees stopped the play and did not let her take the shot. Controversially, the ice had not been resurfaced since the end of the second period, and the puck got caught up in the heavy ice before Tosone could get it moving. Walpole dominated the overtime, but the Medfield goalie made save after save, denying Tosone, Matherson, and sophomore Olicia Knight on the doorstep before the overtime buzzer sounded with the game still knotted up at one apiece.
After a ten minute delay in which the referees and the Athletic Directors from both sides appeared to be clarifying what ensued after the overtime, the shootout started. Medfield went first, and Welch made a spectacular save on a spinning shot while falling down; Tosone attempted to redeem herself but was stopped this time by the sprawling Medfield goalie. Matherson, MacMillan, junior Rachel Barry, and Knight were all stopped in succession, but Welch stoned all of the Medfield shooters to keep the score at 0-0. After Welch made what looked like to be her easiest save of the night, catching the Medfield shooter’s shot–something a goalie usually does not do in a shootout–Donahue stepped up and shot over the Medfield goalie to be the hero once again. The girls rushed the ice and everyone congratulated Donahue and Welch on their stellar shootout performances.
Both goalies were the best players for each side; each goal was off a rebound that neither goalie could do anything about. Welch made some outstanding saves on Medfield power plays, for when Medfield actually sustained possession and got a quality shot off, Welch never failed to make the big save. The Medfield goalie was under much more severe pressure for most of the game and benefited from a few close misses, but she still made saves low and high from Matherson and Tosone all night. It came down to which goalie broke first; Donahue was the only one that unlocked the Medfield goalie in the shootout and no Medfield players could figure out how to beat Welch.
The girls play Friday, March 1, against Duxbury, the number one seed, at the Bog in Kingston. Although Duxbury is certainly a favorite to go on and win the state championship, if Walpole can play like they did against Medfield and put more of their shots on target, they have a chance to win.
