The time-honored hockey gamble of pulling the goalie for an extra skater when trailing late in a game always comes with the risk that the extra offensive weapon could come at the expense of an empty-net goal.

Unfortunately for the Whitman-Hanson/Pembroke girls hockey team, six Marshfield Rams proved to be one skater too many on Saturday night.

Marshfield pulled Taylor Newcomb from the net in the final minute, and junior defenseman Caroline Weber took advantage by sliding a shot into the WHP net with 43.5 seconds left on the clock to tie the game at four and cap a wild third period that featured as many ejections as goals in a heated game between the two teams.

“It was very feisty,” head coach Joe Coulter said. “But the girls played well today, they did a lot of things well.”

Marshfield kept WHP pinned inside their own blue line after pulling Leonard, but WHP looked as though they might clear the puck after a diving save by Melissa Hatch. However the puck careened to Weber, who was all alone at the top the right faceoff circle, and Hatch couldn’t get back into position before the shot.

The goal was the second of the period for the Rams after WHP scored three times in the second period to take a 4-2 lead into the third. WHP peppered Leonard with eight shots in the period, but could not break through and seemed to lose their composure against the physical Rams team as Jane Morrisette was ejected for highsticking with 3:19 left in the game, and Ali McLoud joined her in the locker room after being sent off in the final minute following an altercation in the fallout from Weber’s goal.

WHP got off to a rocky start in the game as five penalties in the first period prevented them from getting their offense into sync. Morrisette gave the team a 1-0 lead when she beat Leonard with a stick-side backhand in the first period, but the penalties proved costly as Angela Dunn tied the game with Marshfield on a power play, and Paige Connolly made it 2-1 Marshfield with 1:40 left to play in the first period.

The damage could have been great, but Hatch made 17 saves in the period while the WHP defense killed nearly two minutes of five-on-three Marshfield power plays to keep the team within striking distance. Their perseverance paid off in the second period as Ali Webster tied the game at two 44 seconds after play resumed Morrisette gave WHP the lead back with another breakaway goal at the 11:43 mark.

“We had way too many penalties [in the first period],” Coulter said. “We just told them to settle down, we know the rink and we know the team, and we had a much better second period.”

Assistant captain Jackie Sullivan gave the team a power-play goal of their own later in the period when she rifled a one-timer from Giana Deacetis past Leonard with 5:25 left to play.

“We had some real pretty goals, a lot of nice set-ups and some great passing,” Coulter said. “A lot of the little things we’ve been doing in practice they did on the ice.”

Christine Graham pulled Marshfield back within a goal with 10:48 to play in the third period before Weber tied the game.

The tie came one day after a 7-2 loss to Barnstable at the Bridgewater Ice Arena. While Barnstable’s high-powered offense was too much for WHP to contain, Coulter said he was please with how well the team competed.

“Barnstable has an awesome team, and the score doesn’t show the effort that was on the ice,” he said. “They were very aggressive on the puck and took the play to them, which was good.”

WHP will close out their season at the Asiaf Rink in Brockton on Saturday night when they play host to Notre Dame Academy.