Coach John Blake has had several good streaks in his coaching career at DHS. But Saturday night at The Bog, the Duxbury mentor was glad to see one come to an end.

Scoreless in their last two games, and eight consecutive periods of hockey, the Dragons finally broke out of their scoring slump over the weekend when they knocked off Norwood, 3-2, to put themselves over the .500 mark at 5-4-4.

It was a game Duxbury desperately needed, as their punchless offense has cost them several wins they were counting on when the season started.

First-period action was entertaining, as both squads raced up and down the ice. But as has been the case for both teams, neither was able to put the puck in the net.

GRAND THEFT – Norwood goaltender Cory Sennott flashes out the glove to rob Duxbury’s Colin Woods (#2) of a scoring bid in Saturday’s 3-2 Duxbury win over the Mustangs.

The best chance for either side came with just 20 seconds left in the first period when the Mustangs put a blistering shot on Duxbury goaltender Billy Goodhue, who spotted the shot coming through a screen and steered it harmlessly to the corner.

Just 13 seconds later the Dragons would catch a break when Norwood’s Mike Verrochi went to the penalty box for a crosscheck, setting up a Duxbury power-play to start the second period.

“I thought we came out and played a really good first period,” said Blake. “We felt we dominated the first period and if we kept up what we were doing, the puck would eventually go in the net.”

It was bad enough that the Mustangs had to play a man down after the second-period face-off, but it was even more disastrous when they were whistled for another penalty at the 14:23 mark to give the Dragons a two-man advantage.

With center Brad Devereaux winning the draw at the right face-off circle, the puck slid back to defenseman Dan May, who moved across the blue line and blasted a shot on net that slid through the pads of Norwood goalie Cory Sennott for a 1-0 Duxbury lead.

The Dragons added to their lead just over two minutes later when Pat Charland beat the Norwood defense to the puck along the right boards and went in alone on Sennott, faking the Norwood netminder to the center of the net and firing a shot inside the right hand post for a 2-0 lead with 11:49 left in the middle stanza.

Norwood would get a chance to cut the deficit when Charland went off for a penalty a minute after his goal, but good penalty killing by senior captain Mark Murphy negated the Mustang’s power-play effort and almost resulted in a Duxbury goal when Matt Hetherington came out of the box at the end of the penalty and put a tester on Sennott.

The Dragons were able to kill off another Norwood power-play with 6:37 to go, while Hetherington once again had a scoring bid for the Dragons in the final minutes of the period.{sidebar id=1}

Duxbury appeared ready to ice the game at the 11:54 mark of the final period when Sennott robbed Colin Woods on a shot from the slot. But it only served to inspire the Mustangs, who came charging back up ice on a two-on-one, only to be stopped by Goodhue, who recovered from the first shot and batted away the rebound to keep the margin at two goals.

Norwood had their engine running at full speed as the clock kept ticking away, but Goodhue was equal to the task, stopping another Mustang rush and recovering in time to knock away a rebound before it found its way into the open net.

Penalties to Charland and Matt Landry in the final seven minutes gave Norwood hopes for a comeback, but the Dragons did an excellent job of protecting Goodhue until 1:26 remained on the clock.

That’s when Norwood’s Adam Casserly found himself uncovered on the left boards and moved in on Goodhue through the face-off circle, beating the senior netminder high over the shoulder to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Duxbury’s Mike Woomer went to the penalty box with 48 seconds left in the game and Norwood pulled its goalie with the face-off in the Duxbury end.

May got the loose puck along the boards and fired it the length of the ice, hitting the open net dead center for what proved to be the game-winner, as Casserly beat Goodhue at the buzzer for the final score of the game.

“You have to give credit to those kids in that room,” said Blake. “There are only 16 of them here today. We have some guys out sick and we have some guys that played injured, but they really showed a lot of character tonight. Tonight is the type of game that will bring this team together.”

After traveling to Worcester to play St. John’s of Shrewsbury on Monday night, the team has its sights set on a tough stretch of three games starting on Saturday night when the Dragons entertain Xaverian at The Bog at 5:15.