The 2010 Milbury Cup Championship kicked off Wednesday night, December 29, 2010 when the Walpole High Boys Hockey Team met the Falmouth Clippers in the opening round of the four team tournament.  The Rebels came into the game with a record of 1-3 and had some struggles early in the season.  The Clippers, by contrast, were 4-0 and a Top 20 team.  Coach Jamie O’Leary preached to ‘turn this ship around’ to his players in the practices leading up to this game.  When the Rebels hit the ice they knew that they would have to play their best hockey of the season and what better stage to come out than their own tournament, the Milbury Cup.

Walpole came out swinging against Falmouth as the players acted on their coaches word.  Their hard work soon paid off as sophomore Alex Carde recorded his first ever goal when he scored off of a rebound.  Carde’s goal gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead over the Clippers going into the first intermission.  The second period saw more of the same for the Rebels as they continued to outwork and outplay their opponent.  The score at the start of the third period was still Walpole 1 to Falmouth 0.  The Clippers came to life in the third when only minutes into the period, Falmouth scored and tied the game up.  Walpole would not go down easy and kept fighting.  The resilience of the Rebels triumphed in the end though as Walpole capitalized on one of their chances and ended up winning the game with a score of 2-1.  The win put the Rebels in the Championship Game of the Milbury Cup where they had to face a strong Archbishop Williams team that was ranked #16 by the Boston Globe.

The high ranking, Catholic Conference team did not intimidate the Rebels as they took the ice on Thursday, December 30, 2010 to bring the Milbury Cup back to Walpole.  The Rebels had the memory of their bitter loss to the Bishops of Archbishop Williams last season and knew they had to play better than they had against Falmouth in order to win the tournament.  Although the score was knotted at 0-0 after the first period, Walpole had outplayed their competition again and it was only time before the Rebels would exploit one of Archbishop William’s mistakes.  This chance occurred in the second period when senior defenseman Andrew Gambon skated in from the blueline and put the puck in the back of the net.  Netting the first goal of his career – and putting the Rebels on top – Gambon was a key contributor throughout the game.  The Rebels could not celebrate for long because the Bishops answered with a goal off of a slapshot from the blueline.  The score was tied, again, at 1-1 when the teams hit the ice for the third period.

The third period looked good for Walpole after sophomore John White gave the Rebels the lead again five minutes into the period when he scored on a rebound.  Five more minutes passed and the teams were battling back and forth in an excellent high school hockey game until senior Dan Kelley got a two minute penalty for hooking.  The Bishops then scored on the power play and tied the game up.  The intensity was growing in the arena as time was winding down and both teams looked like they could score at any moment.  Two minutes were left in the game when senior defenseman Mike Doherty tried to pin an Archbishop Williams player against the boards, but ended up hitting the player from behind.  Doherty received a four minute major penalty and a disqualification for the hit.  The disqualification means that the player is ejected from the game and is suspended for the next two games as well.  The Rebels were forced to be on the penalty kill for the rest of the period.  Normally, a high school hockey game can end in a tie, but since this was the Milbury Cup Championship a five minute overtime would be played and if no one scored during that time, then a shootout would begin.

To start the overtime, Walpole would begin a man down because two minute were still left on Doherty’s four minute major.  After successfully killing the penalty the Rebels now set their sights on ending this game and went on the attack for the final three minutes of the overtime.  Still deadlocked in an even game, a shootout would be the final way to determine the winner of the tournament.  Archbishop Williams went first and sophomore goalie Ray Mortali expertly blocked the shot.  Senior forward Kyle Guilbert was the first Rebel player to go in the shootout and almost snuck one by the Bishops’ goalie, but he grabbed it with his glove at the last minute.  It was Archbishop William’s turn again and this time the Bishops player had actually deked out Mortali, but somehow the sophomore goalie gloved the shot while on his back.  Sophomore forward Matt Bender was up next for Walpole, but he could not produce a goal.  The Bishops would score when they went again and the fate of the Rebels were left to senior Captain Dave Conroy.  Conroy had to score or the Bishops would win the game.  So the Captain skated down the ice and fired his shot, but it hit the post and deflected away from the net.  The final score would read Archbishop Williams 3, Walpole 2.

Although the game was a tough loss for the Rebels, they had proven to the rest of the Bay State League that they aren’t the same old Walpole team anymore, but instead a disciplined and determined team that could compete, and win, against Top 20 teams.  Walpole’s next game is on Wednesday, January 5 when they host the Warriors of Brookline and hope to win an important Bay State League matchup.