Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. at the John A. Ryan Arena, with Watertown/Wayland Raiders Hockey in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, one and all were treated to an excellent hockey game. Watertown/Wayland was faced with the challenge of trying to end the losing streak against the Winchester Red & Black, ranked 14th in the Boston Globe Top 20 as of last week and fresh off a big win at Belmont.
On top of that, Watertown/Wayland was facing an excellent goalie, Senior Macklin O’Flynn, the 6’3″, 190 pound lefty. And aside from a seven goal shellacking at the hands of top-3 Hingham a few weeks back, Winchester had given up only 12 goals in 8 games. On this afternoon, though, the Raiders gave a great effort and deserved a better fate than a 3-2 defeat. The first period highlighted the fact that the Raiders top line of Center Lukas Wynn and Forwards Luke Egan and Griffin Wood can play with anyone. These three are tired young men at the end of most games, as their ice time is double or more than the other two lines combined. And after a Winchester goal by Leo Dagostino gave the Red & Black a 1-0 lead, the Raiders top line line came through seven minutes later to tie it at one. Griffin Wood, positioned perfectly to the right of goalie O’Flynn, knocked home a rebound created by some nifty play from Luke Egan.
Recent home games have found the Raiders in a hole and trailing by two or three goals after one period, so the 1-1 score was refreshing and certainly must have given the Raiders some confidence going into the second period. And look, you don’t get awarded a goal for simply winning the period, but Watertown/Wayland was the better team in period number two, and even had the better scoring chances.
The only penalty of the game was called in the second, a two minute roughing call (can you say cheap shot?) administered by Winchester’s Caiden Brady on Lukas Wynn. Wynn had trouble getting up and after being examined by the trainer had to be helped off the ice by two of his teammates as he couldn’t put weight on his right leg. Watertown executed a solid power play which included a few testers on O’Flynn, but they couldn’t score. More importantly, though, what looked like perhaps a serious injury to first-line forward Wynn was miraculously not, as he started the third period between his first-line mates Egan and Wood. The third period started pretty evenly with the score still knotted at 1, but senior Axel Osborn changed that when he hammered home a third rebound attempt top-shelf over a beleaguered Raiders goalie Findlay MacDonald. It should be noted that MacDonald was once again excellent in net, and made three excellent saves at close range in this exchange, but no one was able to clear the rebound and Osborn’s special shot made it 2-1 Winchester three minutes into the third. A little over three minutes later Caiden Brady made it 3-1, and thoughts of a magical third period, a first win in a month and an upset of a ranked opponent seemed to have faded faster than a Drake May strike into the end zone for a touchdown. But, oh, thee of little faith. On this day the Raiders had a response. A team that had scored only 16 goals in 11 games leading into today, made it 3-2 just over a minute later thanks to the first line once again. Luke Egan got the goal, with assists from his linemates Wood and Wynn. All three deserve a start of the game! So, with 8 minutes gone and only 7 remaining, could Watertown/Wayland come up with the equalizer and send this game to overtime?
