Marauders Girls Hockey Loses Heartbreaker in OT

The Dedham Marauders girls hockey team got wrapped up in a shootout Friday night in against a Sandwich team that was missing their starting goalie.

Despite holding two-goal leads on two occasions, the Marauders couldn’t hold off the barrage of over 40 shots on net by Sandwich, who defeated Dedham 5-4 in overtime in the second round of the MIAA Division 2 South tournament.

“I didn’t expect them to get that many shots,” said Dedham star goaltender Emily Mosca after the game.

The Marauders jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to the stick of freshman and Bay State leading scorer Colleen Downing. Downing’s first goal came in the first 30 seconds of the game, when she landed a wrist shot just inside the left circle.

“She has a great knack for the net,” said coach Joe Huff

Downing's second goal came at 12:23 of the first period, to give what many thought to be a convincing lead.

However, Sandwich came back and attacked the net with their forechecking and used their speed to answer with two goals in the second period to tie the game at 2-2.

The first came off the stick of Maggie Hero, who finished with a  hat trick. She tallied the tying goal and game winner in overtime to advance Sandwich to Sunday’s showdown against Norwood.

The second Sandwich goal was a wrist shot from the point by Katie Flynn with 4:06 left in the second that beat Mosca to the glove side.

Downing answered with her third goal, a loose puck just behind the net that she somehow managed to sneak by the Sandwich goalie, for her third hat trick in a row. Senior Samantha Parr was in on the assist.

Senior captain Meaghan Dwan, put the Marauders up 4-2 with a breakaway goal with 13 seconds left. And once again the Marauders held a two-goal lead that they couldn’t hold onto.

“We changed up our forecheck from a 2-3 to a 1-2-2. They were coming at our [defense] hard. We had to get it out quick so we adjusted our break quick. They were beating us off the boards," said Huff.

Dedham had two power plays in the final two minutes of regulation, but couldn’t convert on a 5-on-3 with a minute left that gave Sandwich a huge momentum switch as the third period ended.

“Came down to a bounce here and there, I would have liked to seen more shots on our part,” said Huff.

Sandwich out-shot Dedham 43-18, which represents how important Mosca was in keeping her team in it.

 “The reason it was 4-4 was because of her,” added Huff.

 The junior goalie returns with a wealth of confidence heading into next year and carries a 1.82 GAA on her resume.

 “I am going to go into the season with confidence next year,”said Mosca.

Download the movie