Disappointing End to the Harbormen’s Season

As the final buzzer sounded and the Harbormen’s season came to an unexpected and early end, the reality of the moment began to sink in the for the players.  For 13 seniors, their high school careers came to an end.  And for most of them, so did playing organized hockey.  

Hingham geared up to host their third home playoff game against Arlington on Saturday night, even though not one game was at their home rink (that’s a topic that deserves a whole article by itself). This was a rematch of an earlier season game where Hingham beat the Spy Ponders 4-1.  It’s the second week in a row that they faced off against an opponent they already met once this year.  No one knows more than Harbormen coach Tony Messina how hard it is to win against someone twice in a season.  As he said after the win against Franklin last week, where they avenged an early season loss, the boys get a little more amped up to face someone they already lost to. 

This seemed to be the case on Saturday night.  Arlington came out with a purpose and took it to Hingham in the first period.  The only thing that kept them in the game was the goaltending of senior Luke Merian, who might have had his best period of the season.  Hingham was outshot 13-5 and as the first period ended tied 0-0,  it was still anyone’s game.  

It appeared as though Hingham weathered the storm after the first frame, but as the second started, it was clear something was missing.  Senior captain Bobby Falvey was ruled out for the remainder of the game due to an upper body injury.

“Having Bob out, Bob Falvey out of the lineup really hurt us,” Messina said after the game.  “He took a couple of shifts and was not feeling that great and I said you’re not playing.  He wanted to, but just couldn’t risk it.”

With their captain out, the third defensive pairing of senior Shay Crean and junior Danny Carroll stepped up and played huge minutes in the biggest game of the season.  Even with only five defensemen for the rest of the game, Hingham still managed to keep Arlington off the score board until a little over four minutes left in the second.  The Spy Ponders scored on a power play goal giving them a 1-0 lead.  Less than two minutes later, Hingham scored on their own power play to tie it up.  Senior Ryan Burns, who was moved onto the second PP unit due to Falvey being out, fired one in the back of the net seconds into the power play.  

Hingham’s momentum to start the third came to an end as they found themselves down by a goal after an Arlington power play goal five minutes into the third.  Two minutes later, the Harbormen battle back again when the team’s leading goal scorer, junior Aidan Brazel, notched his 18th of the season on a power play goal to tie things up at 2-2.  But with just over 2:30 minutes remainder, Arlington cashed in on a rebound just over the outstretched glove of Merian.  The Spy Ponders added an empty netter that sealed the deal and ended the Harbormen’s season. 

“I just told them that there’s only one team that doesn’t feel like this,” said an emotional Messina.  “It’s been a great ride. A great team.  Great group of kids.  Couldn’t have asked for anything more. It seemed like we were chasing the game the whole time.  They scored, we tied it up.  They scored again.  We couldn’t get any momentum.”

Even though the team couldn’t find its rhythm, Messina had high praise for his defensemen who had to step up.

“We had a couple of defensemen who played prime time tonight,” he went onto say. “Really held their own.  Did a great job.  Danny Carroll and Shay Crean had prime time shifts and did a great job.  Can’t be upset with that.  Our goalie played great, Luke Merian. All of our lines dug in.  They’re (Arlington) a good team.”

While things didn't seem to be going their way all night, it still never felt like they were out of the game.  The Harbormen's second goal was a perfect example of how they kept fighting throughout.  After Arlington regained the lead in the third, Hingham got some decent pressure keeping the puck in the Arlington end for over a minute.  A save by the Spy Ponder goalie stopped play allowing a spent Hingham line, including Aidan Brazel, to make a change.  Less than a minute later, Hingham went back on the power play and over the boards jumped Brazel who eventually tied it up seconds into the PP.  60 seconds earlier, he needed to lean on his stick to help him to his feet at the whistle.

"He's a machine," said Messina of his leading scorer. "At one point, when Burns scored the goal, I said can you go back out there, because I was going to put him in the bumper, and he said 'I need a minute."  But he goes hard the whole time."

Every year, teams loose and gain talented kids across all sports. It's the nature of high school sports and the good programs seem to replace the talent they lost on the ice, the field, or the court the next season.  It's much harder to replace great leadership.  That's the challenge Messina has as he looks towards next year.

"A lot of talking about that in there now," when asked about the leadership on his team. "The captains (Garrity, Falvey, and Carleton) have been great this year. The seniors were great and all the younger guys kind of fell in line. It was a great group with no issues at all, no cliques, nothing.  That part of it was great.  Once we got the hockey set, it was pretty good."