Canton, Mass.—Norwood defeated Dedham 4-1 for its first win since opening night, but head coach Bill Clifford was far from thrilled with his team’s performance on Wednesday.
“We were lucky to get the win,” said an irate Clifford following the game. It was the Mustangs first win since knocking off Brookline in their opener on Dec. 13. “They outplayed us for two periods. We dominated the first period, but that was it. We didn’t show up for the last two periods.”
Norwood (2-4-2) got two power play goals late in the first thanks to a major penalty for boarding on Robert Chiozzi, culminating a period in which the Mustangs outshot the Marauders 20-1. Jake O’Rourke had the first goal, calling for the puck from Sean Mellen atop the attacking zone and letting it rip to put Norwood on top 1-0 at 13:59. TJ Glover followed just 42 seconds later to give the Mustangs a two-goal edge heading into the break.
After Norwood’s onslaught in the first, Dedham (2-6-0) outshot the Mustangs 19-10 over the game’s final 30 minutes.
“It’s always nice to get the win,” said Clifford. “But we’ve got to play better hockey than what we did tonight. We won’t be winning many games if they don’t play better than that.
“All night long we turned the puck over,” added Clifford. “All over the ice. We had 18 turnovers alone in the second period. We got away with it tonight, but we’re lucky.”
The Marauders cut the Mustangs lead in half at 3:43 of the second period behind captain Ronnie Pucci’s goal, but Armando Piatelli responded with his second goal in as many games a minute and a half later to put Norwood back on top. Piatelli was able to carry the puck from the neutral zone into the attacking zone untouched, letting it fly from the right circle.
With the Mustangs unable to put the game away, Dedham took things up a notch physically, winning loose puck battles in the neutral zone, in the corners, and wherever else they could throw their bodies around.
“We stepped up our physical game, and saw the tide kind of change when we started getting our head into it more,” said Marauders coach Joe Huff. “We knew what we had to do. I think it was just a matter of confidence on our part, to prove to ourselves that we can do it.
“The fellas played really well,” continued Huff. “The effort was there, the opportunities were there, and we just couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities.”
Norwood didn’t officially ice the game until Dan Farrell’s empty netter with 10 seconds left in the third.
“We weren’t making hits, we weren’t catching passes, we weren’t making passes. We weren’t doing the simple things that we got to do to put the puck in the net,” O’Rourke of his team’s performance after the first period. The senior captain also had an assist on Glover’s goal.
“I think that’s been one of our problems this year, we don’t really have any fire in the locker room coming out onto the ice,” said O’Rourke when asked how his team can get fired up for its next game, this Saturday night vs. Wellesley at 6:45 p.m. at Babson College. “Even when we’ve had it in the locker room, we don’t transfer it onto the ice. You’ve just got to have that mindset when you wake up in the morning, on the bus going to the game, warm-ups, everything.”
The Mustangs now have points in each of their last two games, both vs. conference opponents. That’s a good sign moving forward, as they play only one more non-conference game (at Brockton on Feb. 2) the remainder of the season.
The Marauders have now lost four in a row following a 2-2 start. They will try to pick up the pieces for Saturday, when they host Natick at 3 p.m.
Norwood and Dedham play again on Feb. 11, that time at the Bliss and Omni Flood Rink in Dedham.