For most of the game, the Silver Lake high boys’ hockey team hung right in there.
Ultimately, however, their opponent surged late in the game and the Lakers (3-4-1) fell to the Whitman-Hanson Panthers (5-3-1) by a 3-1 score at Hobomock Ice Arena on Wednesday, January 10.
The Panthers had an early edge in the first period, spending most of their time on offense. They outshot the Lakers 6-4 in that span but were unable to score a goal as Alden Maguire played well in net. Defenseman Nick Iarossi had a great shot block with five seconds left in the period, preventing what could have been a goal.
In the second period, the Lakers would come out strong offensively. Defenseman Gregory Wolff netted the first goal of the game to put the Lakers up 1-0 less than two minutes into the period. He found the top right shelf and took his shot from around the blue line. Defenseman Liam Kelleher had the assist on the goal.
The Panthers were able to get some offensive momentum going as the game wore on. They tied the game up at one apiece with 6:17 left in the second period with a hard slapshot from inside the left faceoff circle. In the third period, they were able to put the game away.
The Lakers got outshot 10-3 in the third period and the Panthers took advantage of that. They scored goals with 5:49 remaining and 3:33 remaining to put the game away.
In the final couple minutes of the game, the Lakers were down a man because of penalties, so they faced long odds of making a comeback.
David Marani, Alexander Heffernan and Bobby Guilford comprised the Lakers first line of forwards in the game; John Evans and Nicholas Iarossi were their first defensive pairing.
The Lakers next game is this Saturday, Jan. 20 at Hobomock Ice Arena against Hanover (3:10 p.m. start time).