Undermanned? Maybe. Last-seed underdogs? Sure. Been there before? Absolutely. 

Just under a year removed from winning it all at TD Garden, the Watertown High hockey team opened its title defense Thursday night with a dominant 3-0 win over Northeast Regional. The Raiders outshot their opponents, 33-5, en route to the first-round victory in the MIAA Division 3 North hockey tournament game played at Hallenborg Arena in Billerica.

Seniors Matt Busconi, Michael Giordano, and Nick Martino each landed on the scoresheet for the 13th-seeded Raiders (10-11-0). 

“I thought overall we played well,” said Watertown coach Mike Hayes. “They played very disciplined, ran the system pretty well. Defensively I thought we played well, carried a lot of the play. These guys, after winning it last year, they know what it takes to get back there, and I’m real proud of them.”

Senior goaltender Jason Hughes had very little to do between the pipes, seeing only five shots all night, and turning away each of them. Hughes only had one big save to make, shutting down Northeast forward Nicolas Salgado on a breakaway in the second period to keep his shutout alive.  

“That’s good for us,” says Hayes. “If you can hold a team to just four or five shots, you’re pretty happy.”

Watertown dominated the game from the first drop of the puck, outshooting its opponents, 11-1, in the opening period. Despite some golden opportunities, the Raiders had some trouble capitalizing, partially thanks to an excellent performance from Knights goaltender Anthony Giuliano.

“We came up on a hot goalie, and he was outstanding. Outstanding. Probably took three or four goals away from us that should have been goals,” said Hayes. “I always say that we need to finish, but I’ll give him a ton of credit, because he deserves it. He’s a great goalie.” 

Ten minutes in, the Raiders finally broke through when Busconi slotted home a rebound.

Gardiner, another senior forward, nearly doubled the advantage just moments later, getting clear for a 1-on-1, but Giuliano, stayed home and kept the deficit at one going into intermission.

Giuliano was spectacular through the early sections of the second period, making multiple huge saves to keep his team in the game. A slick move from Gardiner with just under 6:00 to go in the second was all for naught, as Giuliano robbed him again with a big glove save.

“I think it was a great effort in the offensive zone,” said Giordano. “I’m liking the chances, they’re going to keep coming and we’re gonna score. That goalie was a stud.” 

Another period of endless pressure from the Raiders proved successful again with  2:00 to go, when senior forward Tyler Poulin found Giordano wide open on the doorstep. Giordano buried it to give Watertown a 2-0 lead going into the final 15 minutes.

Northeast spent almost 10 minutes of game time killing penalties, and its final penalty would prove the most costly. Some quick puck movement from the Raider power-play unit left Martino alone in the slot. Martino made no mistake in firing home the insurance goal, just about sealing the win with six minutes to play. 

“We definitely had the momentum going,” Martino said. “They got a bad penalty late and we knew we had to take advantage, because they were still battling. We had some good puck movement from TG to Mikey [Giordano] and he fed me in the middle, and I was able to get it over his glove.

“I think our team did a good job not retaliating to their penalties. They were playing really aggressive because that’s their style. Usually it works for them, but it didn’t work for them tonight.”

The Raiders couldn’t find a fourth goal with the Northeast net empty, but still skated off with a 3-0 statement victory to kick off their state title defense. 

“I think we played very well all around,” said Gardiner, “Jason [Hughes] got his first shutout of the playoffs, the defense did very well getting the puck to the forwards, and the forwards did a very good job getting the puck out and getting some goals.”

Despite being the defending state champs, the Raiders enter this year’s tournament as the last-seeded team in Division 3 North. Northeast Regional, the No. 4 seed, finished the year 13-7-1.

“I think that nobody is really concerned with the seeding,” Gardiner said. “We have to beat everybody in order to get to the Garden once again, so the seedings don’t really matter to us. We are all focused on the goal and raising the trophy, not so much where we are in the standings.

“It’s motivating to be the ‘underdogs’, but we are definitely battle-tested and have a bunch of guys who are experienced in postseason play. It would be pretty cool, though, to be the last seed and win the title again.”

The Raiders  move on to play No. 12-seeded Weston (9-9-3) on Monday, March 7. Watertown’s John A. Ryan Arena had already been chosen as the location for the quarterfinal matchup, but possibly could be shifted to a neutral site. 

–March 3, 2016–