Late Goal From Doherty Not Enough As Warriors Fall To Reading

Signs of spring bring out an extra urgency for all ice hockey players, and it was certainly evident at Burbank Ice Arena on Wednesday night as the Wakefield High boys hockey team lost a close one to the Reading Rockets, 3-2, in a riveting, high-octane contest.

Reading drew first blood 7:14 into the first quarter when senior Zach Coughlin put his squad on the board, but Wakefield drew even four minutes later thanks to an equalizer from junior Brett Buckley.

The score held even heading into the first intermission, but the Rockets were offered a golden opportunity to take the lead heading into the second period thanks to a four minute roughing major assessed on Wakefield assistant captain Patrick McCarthy.

While the Warriors were able to kill the penalty, the Rockets would regain the lead with 1:48 left in the period thanks to another score from Coughlin, who then closed out his night with a hat trick 8:01 into the third.

But the Warriors were not done as junior Kevin Doherty put one way with just under five minutes left in the contest to put things back in reach, but Wakefield couldn’t convert any more goals despite a frenetic attack in the final stretch.

Despite the loss, Wakefield head coach Derek Edgerly left satisfied with his team's hustle on the ice, particularly regarding the Warriors penalty killing during the major penalty, where the Rockets were not able to convert even a single shot on net.

“I thought that was the best game we played all year, but it just wasn’t meant to be,” said Edgerly. “Imagine being down 3-1 with four minutes to go and you score and you nearly score another again. These kids, that’s what they’ve been doing all year for us. If they give us this effort every night from now until the tournament, we’re going to be a pretty good little hockey team.”

Edgerly also thought Coughlin’s hat trick came more from momentary lapses in his team’s focus than anything else, but while the Rocket tallies might not have been flashy, it wouldn’t have been expected any other way given the fact that Reading has prided itself on being a scrappy over-achieving club all season, something they proved on this night.

“We’re not real big, we need to play with more energy and we gotta jump on people. I think we took the game over when we came forward with the forecheck and started jumping on them,” said Reading head coach Mark Doherty. “I thought the longer the game went on, the better we did.”

However, Doherty differed from Edgerly in the fact that he would have liked even more from his squad given the suspense created by the last few minutes, although he admits that a large part of the tightness of this game came from the talent of the Warriors.

“We’ve been playing with dynamite, and eventually it’s going to go off, we can’t keep having these 3-2, 2-1 games. We knew we were going to, but I think we can avoid it if our effort improves a little,” said Doherty. “Then again, I think Wakefield’s pretty good. They’ve got some kids that can play.”

The Warriors head into their weekend matchup against rival Melrose with an 8-4-4 record while Reading climbs 13-4-1 and will continue their homestand on Saturday night as the Spartans of Stoneham come to town.