KINGSTON — The Greenfield hockey team gave the top seed in the MIAA Div. 4 state bracket all it could handle on Saturday.
The No. 32 Green Wave held No. 1 Norwell off the scoreboard for the opening two periods, and the game stayed scoreless heading into the final 15 minutes of action.
Clipper Griffin Vetrano broke the tie with 13:28 to go off a rebound out front, though that wasn’t all he broke. Vetrano celebrated into the boards, and proceeded to break the glass he jumped into, leading to an hour and a half break in the action.
Once the new piece of glass was put into place and the game resumed, Norwell took control, ripping off three goals in a two-minute span to ultimately knock off Greenfield with a 4-0 victory at The Bog Ice Arena.
“That’s a great Norwell team,” Green Wave coach Adam Bouchard said. “We played our hearts out. These student-athletes poured everything they had into it. We had some opportunities, we just couldn’t finish it off. They popped a couple in which made the climb steeper.”
After the break in action in the third period, both teams flew up-and-down the ice with multiple chances on both ends but neither Greenfield goalie Josh Bordeaux or Clipper netminder Micah Beltrami let anything past them.
That was until the 9:53 mark of the period, when Norwell’s Nolan Petro got the puck behind the Green Wave net and snuck a wraparound past the pad of Bordeaux to make it a 2-0 game.
Greenfield had a great opportunity one minute later with Sammy Knight sneaking behind the Clipper defense but Beltrami came up with a big save. He then sent the puck over to Aedan Coyle who found Timmy Ward and the junior deked in and found the back of the net to make it a 3-0 game with 8:35 to go.
Norwell won the ensuing faceoff and 28 seconds later Vetrano smashed home a rebound to put Norwell ahead 4-0 with 8:07 to play, a score that held until the final whistle.
“They play a very similar game to us,” Bouchard said. “They have an aggressive forecheck, they find the high guy, lots of pucks on nets, strong defensive zone coverage. They played very well. We had a small little breakdown on their first goal. The huddle, both teams had to go through it. We came out and both teams were flying down the ice. Nothing but love and respect for that Norwell team. They’re great student-athletes. It was a very positive trip except for the outcome.”
Bordeaux was a big reason the game remained scoreless for two periods. The Green Wave goalie made 14 saves in each period and stopped 19 pucks in the third period to finish the game with 47 saves as the Clippers came with relentless pressure throughout.
Conversely, every time it looked like Greenfield had something brewing in the Norwell zone, a Clipper defender was there to break up the play. The Green Wave put four shots on goal in the first period, five in the second period and five in the third period.
It was the kind of effort that the Clippers needed to knock off Greenfield in the postseason. Saturday was the first postseason loss for the Green Wave since 2019, ending an incredible tournament run.
It’s never easy seeing a senior class graduate out of a program, but especially tough when it’s a class that had the success this year’s group enjoyed.
“No matter how much you prepare, you’re never prepared for when that last buzzer goes off,” Bouchard said. “You need to look at your seniors and know it’s the last day they’ll put that Green Wave sweater on. When you look at the season, Wright Division champion, Western Mass. champion, it’s something we’re really proud of. It’s a great group of seniors and a great group of leaders. We’re excited to see what each of them will do with the next chapter of their lives. It’s sad the way this ended but you have to be proud of everything we accomplished.”