Bulldogs’ postseason ride ends in D2 south finals

Canton fans packed the Gallo rink in Bourne for Sunday’s sectional final. (Mike Barucci photo)

For the second straight year, the Canton High boys ice hockey team made magic in the postseason, only to fall just short of its ultimate goal.

Returning to the Division 2 south sectional final after a memorable 5-1 thrashing of No. 2 Medfield last week, the sixth-seeded Bulldogs drew their neighbors and Ponkapoag rink-mates — the top-seeded Westwood Wolverines — and played them tough despite an eventual 4-1 defeat.

“We knew going in that it was going to be a tough matchup,” said head coach Brian Shuman after Sunday’s championship showdown at Gallo Arena in Bourne. “Westwood is a very good team. They’re well coached and they’re heavy on senior leadership.”

Shuman said the Wolverines, who defeated Canton earlier in the season and were the top ranked team in Division 2, were a deserving sectional champion and earned every bit of their most recent victory. At the same time, he thought his own team was equally as talented and capable of beating anyone on any given day.

“I feel like [Westwood] didn’t get our best in both games that we played against them this year,” he said, “but we still battled like we always do and the effort was certainly there. It’s such a hardworking group of guys, which is why I was so proud of them this year.”

The biggest difference between the two clubs on Sunday was in their offensive execution, as Westwood made the most of its scoring opportunities while Canton struggled to finish on the other end.

The Wolverines set the tone early with back-to-back goals by senior Nick Conway in the first seven minutes of the opening period. And while the Bulldogs managed to get one back less than a minute later on Seamus Pecararo’s off-angle shot from the corner, that was the closest they would come as Westwood tacked on two more courtesy of Ken Mackin, including a power play goal early in the second and another one midway through the third.

Senior captain Brian Hagan (Mike Barucci photo)

In between, the Bulldogs had several near misses and carried the pace of play for long stretches of the game. Canton also had a flurry of shots late in the third after pulling goalie Justin Slocum in favor of an extra skater, but the Westwood netminder proved up to the task as the Tri-Valley champs punched their ticket to the TD Garden.

Although disappointed with the way that the season ended, Shuman said the Bulldogs deserve a ton of credit for reaching another sectional final and for playing their best hockey when the games mattered most. If anything, he said he does not want the loss to Westwood to overshadow what had been an outstanding postseason run, highlighted by an absolutely brilliant performance last Wednesday against Medfield (18-4-1) in the sectional semis.

“Medfield was an outstanding team,” noted Shuman, whose squad had dropped their previous two games against the Warriors, including a 3-2 heartbreaker in last year’s south finals. “For the entire season they were up there with Westwood in terms of the upper echelon of Division 2, and for us to handle them 5-1 just shows how we really came to play on that day.”

Shuman characterized the win as a “total team effort,” although much of his praise — and deservedly so — was reserved for the team’s top forward line of junior captain John Femia (2 goals, 2 assists), junior Matt Lazaro (2 goals), and senior captain Brian Hagan (assist). ”They just dominated,” said the Canton coach of his three best players. “It was the quintessential game from that line and they got us into the finals.”

Slocum, who had another outstanding season in net for the Bulldogs, also played a big role in the Medfield win, as did the Canton blueliners, anchored by standout sophomore Jackson Maffeo, and talented sophomore forward Shaun Kirby.

Counting the regular season, it was their ninth victory against a D2 south tournament team this year. They also had wins against the likes of No. 3 Plymouth South, No. 4 Coyle & Cassidy, and No. 5 Medway and finished the season at 16-7-1 overall.

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