WOBURN — Time ran out on the Nauset-Monomoy girls hockey season Saturday afternoon at O’Brien Rink but not before another gutsy, entertaining effort by the Warriors. The girls lost to the Woburn Tanners 5-3 in a Div. 2 Round of 16 game despite a hat trick by junior captain Gaby Bassett and acrobatic goaltending from sophomore Ava O’Connell.

The Warriors’ two-game playoff run was characterized by their ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. They had battled back all season, and the playoffs were no exception. In fact, the Warriors provided numerous master-class examples of perseverance in both games.

The first period on Saturday was a back-and-forth affair, where the 14th-seeded visitors gave the 3rd-seeded home team all they could handle. Bassett opened the scoring at 3:19 by streaking up the right side and firing a shot past Tanner goaltender Cadence Pearce. After Woburn quickly tied the game, Bassett wasted no time restoring the lead for the Warriors by launching a shot from the right point over Pearce’s left shoulder.

Nauset-Monomoy was poised to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, but the Tanners’ Elia Spinazola notched her second goal of the day, poking in a Warrior turnover on the crease with just under 13 seconds remaining.

Woburn scored on a power play late in an evenly played second period to make it 3-2, providing the Warriors with the opportunity for another comeback win. Given the heroics that Nauset-Monomoy exhibited in its playoff opener against Norwood — more to come on that game — an upset victory was certainly possible. But it was the Tanners who scored two goals in the first three minutes of the final period to take a commanding 5-2 lead.

True to the form they had shown all year, the Warriors refused to concede. Bassett chalked up her third goal of the day off assists from Julia Kipperman and Carly Brand to cut the deficit to two with 8:13 left.

The Warriors continued to press the attack and, with 6:52 to play, Woburn’s Mia Basile was whistled for tripping. Warriors Coach Zach Wells immediately called a timeout, and suddenly the visitors had a man advantage to go with momentum. The Warriors’ bench was alive with emotion, while the Tanners were considerably more subdued than just minutes earlier when they held a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Woburn (15-6-1) rose to the occasion after the timeout and, playing at a level befitting a number-3 seed, managed to hold off the Warriors the rest of the way. O’Connell did her part by stopping a breakaway with four minutes left to keep the deficit at two, but the Warriors, despite a concerted effort, could not tally again.

Tanners Coach Steve Kennedy had nothing but praise for Nauset-Monomoy’s performance. “Number 5 [Gaby Bassett] was terrific, and their entire first line with 15 [Julia Kipperman] and 16 [Sophia Boucher] was dangerous and hard to defend,” he said. “We knew we were in for a battle, and that is what we got.”

The Warriors earned a trip to Woburn by coming back from one-goal deficits three times to defeat the 19th-seeded Norwood Mustangs 4-3 on Feb. 26 at Charles Moore Arena.

The teams entered the third period tied at two, but Norwood scored early in the third — its third power-play goal of the evening — to take a 3-2 lead. With their season less than 12 minutes from ending, the Warriors responded.

Throughout the contest, Bassett generated her patented slashing length-of-the-ice attacks that left the Mustangs desperately resorting to penalties to slow her down. Those penalties would haunt Norwood in the end. After the Mustangs were called for high-sticking, Bassett scored her second goal of the game to forge the third tie of the evening with 9:43 left.

A Norwood hooking call two minutes later gave the Warriors the opportunity they were looking for, and they capitalized on it. Working on the power-play unit, the present and future of Nauset-Monomoy hockey were on display as Brand, a senior, drilled home a feed from eighth-grader Sophie Eldredge to give the Warriors their first lead of the game with just under seven minutes left.

Norwood, whose potent offense had tallied five goals in each of its previous four games, tried to mount a comeback but was stifled by Nauset-Monomoy’s defense, which survived a two-minute penalty kill. O’Connell provided a goalie highlight reel as she stopped three point-blank shots during the harrowing final minutes to preserve the victory.

When asked after the game about his team’s ability to repeatedly erase one-goal deficits, Wells said, “We’ve battled back so many times this season. My message at the end of the second period was, ‘Just win the third, and we will win the game.’ ” He noted with a smile that “it is good when things work out.”

The Warriors ended their season with a 10-10-1 record. Though Brand and Boucher will be sorely missed, the rest of the squad, which includes seven eighth-graders, should be returning, guaranteeing a formidable presence in coming seasons.