WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School boys ice hockey team ran into a buzzsaw in a special mid-afternoon contest on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at home.
Lucas DeSousa recorded a hat trick plus-one, tallying four goals as Dartmouth upended Westfield 7-3 Monday at Amelia Park Ice Arena.
DeSousa glided across the crease from right to left in front of the Westfield goal and flicked the puck past the Bombers goaltender for his first goal of the game with 1:07 remaining in the period.
It was a game-tying goal for DeSousa.
Westfield (5-5) opened the scoring 5:26 into the game when Treygan Lemanski skated into the left circle and rattled the puck off the right side of the goalie into the back of the net for the game’s first goal.
DeSouza’s equalizer came with 41 seconds left on a power play. Just one minute before, Westfield killed its first penalty, allowing the Bombers to claim stake to the first advantage.
Dartmouth (4-6) was not done scoring-wise in the period. Ethan Andrade tallied another goal for the Indians 40 seconds later when he chipped in a rebound with 27.1 ticks on the clock.
Westfield responded.
Chase Liptak was the first to a loose puck, taking it toward the left side of the crease and sending one into the opposite side of the net with 7:32 remaining in the second period for a 2-2 tie.
Dartmouth committed a penalty with 6:17 left in the period but killed it off. The team returned to full strength and just as the Indians player exited the penalty box and met his teammates in the offensive zone, DeSousa delivered a point-blank shot from deep in the crease into the back of the net for a 3-2 advantage.
Late in the period, Dartmouth won a 4-on-4, seizing control of the faceoff in their own end, quickly moving the puck up past center ice where DeSousa took control of it, deked a defender, and scored a breakaway goal with 1.8 seconds left. The Indians led 4-2.
Westfield battled back again. Lemanski took advantage of a man-up advantage, putting the stick on a loose puck out in front of the goal to pull the Bombers within 4-3 with 8:04 left in the final frame.
Sixty-four seconds later, DeSousa made it a two-goal lead. The Indians scored twice more – Brady Beauparland and Grant Brisk tallied one apiece – in the final 2:18 to ice the game.
Westfield returns to action Wednesday at home against West Springfield (5-6-1). The puck drops at Amelia Park Arena at 7 p.m.
