The Whitman-Hanson boys hockey team played one of its best all-around games of the season Monday afternoon, but some costly mistakes at the beginning of the third period prevented them from leaving Rockland Rink with a win over the Westwood Wildcats.

The Wildcats scored twice in the first two minutes of the third period to break a 1-1 tie, and were able to hold on to hand the Panthers a 3-2 loss that dropped them to 2-8 on the season.

The Panthers were dominating the second period until they misplayed the puck at the Westwood blue line, which allowed the Wildcats to tie the game on a two-on-one break down the ice with a minute and a half left in the period. The third period then started disastrously for the Panthers with Pat Busa giving Westwood the lead on a power-play goal 28 seconds in and Diarmuid Gallagher making it a 3-1 game 40 seconds later.

The Panthers were able to get one of the goals back with eight minutes to play, but could not get the equalizer.

“It was a little disappointing that we started the third that way,” head coach Rich Manning said. “It was a tough break on that second goal, it was just a bang-bang play. But when you’re not winning the bounces never seem to go your way.”

The Panthers had a sluggish start to the game with the Wildcats controlling the puck for most of the first period, but they were able to head into the locker room with the lead on a goal by right-winger Chris Boussy. Boussy took a pass from Nick Pike and was able to skate across the front of the net and slide the puck between Westwood goalie Jack Schwartz and the post with 3:24 left in the period.

“Bous is his own style player,” Manning said. “It’s great to have him because when we’re not playing well as a team he can spark us. That whole line has been playing outstanding for the last few weeks.”

Boussy’s goal seemed to kickstart the Panthers, who finished the first period strong and then continued to attack the net in the second. However, Schwartz made five saves and the Panthers’ momentum stalled when Al Good tied the game on the odd-man rush and Boussy went to the penalty box for roughing in the final minute of the period.

Boussy pulled Whitman-Hanson back within a goal at the 8:01 mark with the Panthers on the power-play, but Schwartz stopped the next three Panther shots and the Wildcats prevented the Panthers from pulling Mike Bonavita for an extra skater until it was too late for them to take advantage of the extra attacker.

“We fought hard to get back it in,” Manning said. “Our goal today was to have a chance to win in the third and we did. We’re going to try to hang our hats on that, but we need a little more out of everybody in the lineup to get a win.”

The loss was the second straight for the Panthers, who lost 7-1 to the Duxbury Dragons on Saturday. They will try to snap their losing streak when they play the North Quincy Red Raiders at Rockland Rink Saturday night. The Panthers lost a bizarre game to the Red Raiders in Quincy last month, which Manning said he feels was an aberration and he believes the Panthers can play the Raiders hard on Saturday.

“I consider that game a wash and not a good example of how we match up with them,” he said. “We’ve seen them play and we know what they’re about, but if we give a good defensive-zone effort and go from there, we should be able to grind away and have a chance.”