Charlie Breitrose
Senior goalie Anthony Busconi holds the Div. 3 North Section trophy up for the crowd after beating Bedford.
Students, parents and Raider faithful mobbed the Watertown boy’s hockey team as they left the ice holding the MIAA Div. 3 North Section trophy after beating Bedford Friday night.
Watertown’s boys’ hockey team grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second period after the second of two Tyler Poulin goals and the rode senior goalie Anthony Busconi to claim the MIAA Div. 3 North Section Title Friday night at the Chelmsford Forum.
“For the most part during this whole tournament (Busconi) has played great,” said Watertown head coach Mike Hayes. “Tonight I think he really kept us in it. I don’t think we played our best, but to get a win is a good sign.”
Charlie Breitrose
Junior Tyler Poulin celebrates after putting Watertown up 2-1 over Bedford in the North Section final.
For the second game in a row, the Raiders fell behind in the first period, this time to Bedford with 8:04 left in the first period. Four minutes later, Poulin put the puck in the back of the net after passes from Nick Giordano and Mike Giordano.
Watertown continued to pressure the Bedford net in the second period and the junior got the puck in the net again.
“I came down the right side and threw the puck in and went off a defenseman’s stick,” Poulin said. “We’ll take it. A goal’s a goal.”
Busconi said Bedford got a lot of traffic in front of him and they put up a lot of shots, but his teammates helped out with some blocks of their own.
Charlie Breitrose
A Raider shoots on the Bedford goal during Friday\’s North Section final at the Chelmsford Forum.
The win is especially big because of the disappointment the Raiders felt during last’s tournament.
“We want to end the season on a W,” Busconi said. “We thought we had a fluke last year, bad luck, and we wanted to turn that around this year. We wanted to make it up to the seniors last year because we felt like we owed them something.
“(Tonight) we were just playing for each other. I love these guys. They leave it on all the ice every game.”
Poulin said Friday’s win is one that will stick with him.
“It’s the best feeling in the world. I’ll remember this forever,” Poulin said. “Last year ended in tragedy, in overtime. It was the worst feeling I ever had. We came back and played even better this year.”
The Raiders now head to Gallo Arena in Bourne for the state semifinal on Wednesday night against the winner of Sunday’s South Section final between Hanover and Norwell.