Warriors Bow Out In Shootout, 3-2

After all the drama was over and all the dust had settled, Wayland High hockey coach Eric Brown had only one thing to say to his team Thursday night.

"I just congratulated them on a fantastic season and told them they did a great job getting this far," Brown said after his Warriors were eliminated from the state tournament in a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss to Shaswheen Tech at the Chelmsford Forum. "There wasn't much else to say about this game. We played like Warriors."

Indeed, the Wayland skaters left nothing in reserve in this one, peppering Shawsheen goalie Ryan Maskell with more than 30 shots, but only beating him twice, as the two teams played to a 2-2 tie through three regulation periods and one 12-minute sudden death overtime.

By MIAA rules, the game had to be decided in a shootout, and Maskell was the difference maker, stopping all five of the Warrior shooters dead cold. Wayland goaltender Cogan Register was almost as good, stopping four out of five Shawsheen shooters, but the Rams won the shootout, 1-0.

"It was a shame it had to come down to that [a shootout] when two teams battled like that," Brown said. "But they have to do something. You can't just keep playing. There has to be a winner."

Shawsheen junior forward Joe Sodergren was the only player out of 10 skaters to score a goal in the shootout, so the top-seeded Rams will advance to Saturday's Division 3 North Sectional Championship game.

For the Warriors, who came into the tournament with a 13-6-1 record and were seeded sixth in the sectional pairings, it is the end of the road.

"Our kids did a great job," Brown said. "Shawsheen is a great team. They were very physical, but we didn't back down from them."

Wayland jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when junior forward Evan Barber took a pass from Doug Lyons right off the opening face-off, skated down right wing and beat Maskell with the first shot of the game. The goal came just 12 seconds into the first period, and it seemed almost too good to be true.

"Yeah, you kind of have mixed emotions when you get one that early," Brown said. "You're kind of afraid the kids will have a let down, but we didn't."

Shawsheen tied the game at 1-1 just three minutes later when Mike DiGiorgio slammed home a rebound. The Rams took a 2-1 lead with four minutes remaining in the first period when Sodergren stole the puck at mid-ice and skated in alone, beating Register with a wrist shot.

Wayland appeared to have tied the game with 9:46 left in the first period when senior forward Eddie McCarthy scored out of a scramble in front of the Shawsheen net, but the goal was disallowed.

"The ref said the puck was never in the net," Brown said. "I don't know. That seems to happen to us every year."

From that point on, the game became a battle of the goalkeepers, as Register and Maskell took turns stopping anything and everything that was thrown at them.

"He (Register) was huge," said Brown of his keeper. "From the second period on through the overtime he stopped everything they threw at him. He was huge."

Wayland tied the game at 2-2 when senior captain Zach Bastarache slapped one past Maskell on an assist from Altan Atamer with 5:10 remaining in the game.

Neither team could get the go-ahead goal before the end of regulation, and both goaltenders stood tall through the sudden death overtime period, setting up the shootout. Sodergren, who had led the Rams with 23 goals and 31 assists so far this season, was the only Shawsheen player to beat Register, but that was all it took as Maskell stopped all five Wayland shooters.

"We weren't really looking forward to the shootout," Brown admitted. "They've got a couple of snipers. We had worked on it in practice, but this was the first time our guys had been in something like that."

And even though his skaters came up empty, Brown had nothing but praise for his players, particularly senior defensemen Zach Bastarache, E.J. Nicholas and Ian Ball.

"Our three senior defenders played great," Brown said. "Those three guys are the heart of this team. They did a great job against the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

 "We're not an overly skilled team," he added. "But we play hard and we played with a lot of heart tonight."

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie