GREENFIELD — After Luca Siano knocked home his second goal of the game to give the Greenfield hockey team a three-goal lead during the third period against Southwick on Monday, it appeared the Green Wave were going to cruise to a victory. 

The Rams weren’t going to make it that easy, however. 

After Siano’s goal gave Greenfield a 4-1 cushion with 8 minutes, 54 seconds to play, Southwick turned up the pressure. Evan Michelucci tallied with 7:46 to go in the contest and two minutes later, Southwick’s Brady Whittier found the back of the net to cut the lead to 4-3 with 5:41 left on the clock. 

The Rams had a golden chance to tie it late, going on a 5-on-3 power play following a pair of Green Wave penalties with just under three minutes to go. Greenfield — which has a stellar penalty kill unit — killed off the penalties while Cooper Smith made timely saves, allowing the Green Wave to hold on for a 4-3 Wright Division victory at Collins-Moylan Arena. 

“We had to play disciplined,” Greenfield coach Adam Bouchard said. “We had to kill it. We knew we had 55 seconds of 5-on-3. We talked about killing that off, getting to our 5-on-4 where on the season we have a 96 percent kill percentage. Once we got to 5-on-4 we felt good. We’ve had six 5-on-3s this year and haven’t been scored on. We’re pretty excited about our penalty kill. The bad part of that is it means we’re in the penalty box.

“We played hard,” Bouchard added. “It was a good, hard effort by both teams. Take nothing away from Southwick. [Rams coach Gary Whittier] has done a fantastic job there.”

After a pair of losses to Ludlow and Amherst, two games where the Green Wave (10-5) failed to produce a goal, Greenfield has its groove back on the offensive end. 

The Green Wave lit up the scoreboard five times in a victory over Minnechaug on Saturday and followed it up with a four-goal performance against Southwick (5-8) Monday. 

“We forechecked hard and it turned out in our favor,” Siano said. “After that big win on Saturday, we just need to keep it up the rest of the season.” 

Greenfield went on a five-minute power play just one minute into the game after the Rams were called for a major penalty. The Green Wave flew around and peppered Southwick goalie Liam Condon with shots, but Condon stood tall to do his best to keep Greenfield off the board. 

With 26 seconds left on the major, the Green Wave broke through. Porter Hall swung the puck to Derek Wissmann, who found Siano in the slot. The sophomore smashed it home, giving Greenfield a 1-0 lead with 9:30 to play in the opening period. 

“The first one we were on the power play,” Siano said. “I was on the bumper in my position there and Derek Wissmann put it on my stick and I knocked it in.” 

That goal got the Green Wave going, as one minute later Brady Booska tallied to add to the Greenfield lead. Shawn Baumann found Jake Jurek, and Jurek fired it over to Booska who put the shot into the back of the net to give the Green Wave a 2-0 lead. 

Southwick had an answer. Two minutes after Booska’s goal, with 8:05 to go in the first, Evan Grant put a shot on goal that was saved by Smith. The goalie was laying on his stomach after making the diving save however, and was unable to stop Grant’s rebound shot, as it found its way home to cut into the Greenfield lead. 

Following a scoreless second period, the Green Wave tallied twice to take their 4-1 lead. 

Booska set up the third goal, moving the puck behind the Southwick net and sending it to Jurek in front, who made one move and finished to give Greenfield a 3-1 lead with 13:16 to play. 

Matt Garvin set Siano up for his second goal of the game, digging a puck out of the corner, driving to the right circle before sending a pass to Siano in front, who buried the shot to make it a 4-1 game. 

“The second one was Matt Garvin who put it on my tape from the corner,” Siano said. “I just put it five-hole again.” 

Greenfield was whistled for five penalties in the game, three in the second period and the two late in the third. But when the PK is playing as well as the Green Wave’s is, there’s no panic when they are short a man. 

“The penalty kill has been our story all year,” Siano said. “We haven’t given up much on it and I don't think we’ll give up many more. It’s just hard work, moving our feet and getting in the right position to get the puck out.” 

With the win, Greenfield can finish in no worse than a tie for the Wright Division championship, sitting a perfect 7-0 in league play. The Green Wave’s final game of the season against Easthampton — whose lone divisional loss came in overtime to Greenfield — will determine the title before the postseason begins. 

Despite all that, Bouchard said the Green Wave will take things one game at a time and not look too far ahead. 

“Since the first day of tryouts there’s been such a positive buzz and feel with this group of student-athletes,” Bouchard said. “That’s something we take great pride of here. It started at the beginning of the year. It’s not a super long season we have but you wait all offseason for it to get here. When these student-athletes showed up they showed up ready to work. We knew we had a hard schedule. Our non-league and league games were all going to be a competitive battle. I’d love to talk about Western Mass. but we’ll get there when we get there.” 

Next up for Greenfield is a trip to take on East Longmeadow at Olympia Ice Rink on Saturday at 2 p.m.