Steve Scanlon knew coming into the season that it wasn't going to be pretty early on. He was right. But that didn't stop his boys hockey team from earning its first point of the season on Wednesday night.

Despite being outshot by Woburn, 39-12, Wilmington notched the game-tying goal with 21 seconds to play and went on to earn a 2-2 draw with the team many experts picks as a top team in the Middlesex League and the state.

"There are nights when you're outplayed and you're thrilled to get a tie, and tonight was one of them," said Scanlon. "We were outplayed, but we did play hard all night."

With goalie Drew Foley pulled and coming off of time outs by both teams, the Wildcats won the face off and nearly scored immediately. But following a save by goalie Jeremy Flibotte, the puck found the stick of Dalton Rolli.

Rolli shuffled the puck to sophomore Cody McGowan, who found the back of the net to knot the score.

Wilmington was playing without a pair of its top line players, and Scanlon said going into the year that the first month of the season would be a challenge. The coach was excited as his team was up to the task.

"The kids hung right in there until the end," said Scanlon. "If you hustle and you get great goaltending like we did and will get every game, you're going to be in every game. It was a good one for us to open with."