Sandwich High boys hockey team drops heartbreaker in Div. 4 state final against Norwell

BOSTON - The matchup to determine the best Division 4 high school boys hockey team took place at TD Garden on Sunday.

Sandwich and Norwell started the season against each other and finished it the same way.

In the regular season opener (Dec. 8) for both teams, Norwell won 4-1. That was a rematch of last year's Div. 4 state semifinal, which Sandwich won in double-overtime, 3-2.

“The first game that we had, they came out like we had poked a bee’s nest because we had beat them last year and ended their season,” Sandwich coach Jordan Mohre said. “We came out having to replace players from last year’s team. They were a veteran team going into the season with so many of their guys being back. I think we were a little bit inexperienced.”

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The top-seeded Clippers stopped No. 2 Sandwich’s chance at back-to-back championships with a 4-3 win in overtime thanks to a winning goal from Timmy Ward.

“I think every kid in the world that plays hockey dreams about this. I can’t go out in a better way," said Ward.

Another classic: Sandwich vs. Norwell part 3

Quinn Simmons scored the only goal of the first period for the Clippers to give them an early 1-0 lead.

“The momentum really started to switch for us in the first period. We hadn’t really won small battles within shifts and kind of got away from what we were doing, but we still skated. We’re generally a team that’s down and we get into our rhythm, and that’s when we get other teams out of their rhythm,” Mohre said.

Norwell took a 2-0 lead in the second period after a goal by Nolan Petrucelli, and the Clippers looked like they did in the season opener.

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“It's almost not real because the momentum swung in that game at 2-0, you almost thought, if we get one more, this might be over. Then, they came right back,” Norwell coach Jim Casagrande said.

The Blue Knights were down but never out.

Colin McIver got the puck on a takeaway, raced down the ice and scored the first goal of the game for Sandwich on a breakaway.

“They came out hot and we didn’t play our best, so I have to give that to them,” McIver said.

With less than three minutes left in the second period, last year's postseason hero Jack Connolly (he scored game winners in semifinal and final games in OT) came in clutch for his team again with a goal to tie the game 2-2.

“We knew we had it in us to come back, and we just needed a little spark,” Connolly said.

After a comeback by the Blue Knights, Austin Shea scored a back breaker with 41 seconds to give the Clippers a 3-2 lead after the second period.

“We got one at the end of the period which I thought was enormous,” Casagrande said.

Once again, the Blue Knights rallied from being down with a goal from junior Avery Richardson, his second career postseason goal (his first in the Round of 8).

“I got on the ice the last 30 seconds of the power play. Colin McIver was bringing the puck up and I kind of swooped back on our end watching the play go down. Jack went down the left side of the wall, threw on net, and James Mawhinney kind of crashed a little bit and it (puck) ended up spitting out front. I kind of got it and it was flat on my blade, I swung at it to the net and it went past his (Sean Donovan's) glove. That was a big goal for me,” Richardson said.

The two went into overtime for the second straight year in the postseason.

“We had the momentum and we knew it. We were confident. We thought we had it. It was just a few unlucky bounces that didn’t go our way,” McIver said.

Ward scored the winner midway through the overtime, as he faked to the left and then put the puck into the right side of the net.

“I remember him (Ward) coming down the right side and I know he's a good shooter so I was anticipating his shot. He went to my left side and beat me,” senior goalie Mitchell Norkevicius said.

Sandwich's run comes to an end.... for now.

The Blue Knights finished their season with a 19-5-1 record.

"It’s tough with their goalie and that first group, they got some special kids. They are well-coached, they play their positions, they work hard. Jordan (Mohre) is an unbelievable coach. I have a ton of respect for him and the program,” Casagrande said.

On the road to the finals, Sandwich beat Saint Bernard’s 7-1 (Round of 32), Dover-Sherborn 3-0 (Round of 16), Dennis-Yarmouth 4-1 (Round of 8), and Nantucket 3-0 (semifinals).

“We got here against the No. 1 seed and took them to OT. We did the best we could. I’m so proud of all the boys,” McIver said.

The Blue Knights will graduate five seniors, including captains McIver and Norkevicius (Cape & Islands Atlantic Division MVP).

“We have five seniors in there where this is their last time playing high school hockey. It’s difficult at the moment to say, ‘Hey, we played at the Boston (TD) Garden and you’ve done this two years in a row,'” Mohre said.

Although they may lose key pieces, this is something they are accustomed to. They graduated seven seniors from last year’s championship team.

“Like Coach (Mohre) always says, we don’t rebuild, we reload, so we’re going to be back next year harder than ever. It’s going to be exciting,” Connolly said.

Next season will be a different challenge as Sandwich will join the South Shore League, where they will face the new Div. 4 champs twice during the regular season.

“I think there is a lot of passion in the locker room and a lot of confidence too. We know if we can reload and come back with the same amount of intensity next year, we can definitely go as far as we did this year, and maybe end up with the result we want,” Richardson said.

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CJ_Journalist

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Sandwich High boys hockey losses to Norwell in Division 4 state final