February 28, 2025 – Story and photos by Joshua Ross
The third seeded Harbormen opened their tournament campaign with a convincing 7-1 win over Lincoln-Sudbury last night in what was their first true home playoff game in a long, long time. Most of the time, they “host” their home playoff games in Canton’s Ice House due to seating restraints at Pilgrim. It was clear, that having the game at home, was truly an advantage.
Hingham dominated in every aspect of the game – offense, defense, power plays, penalty kills, goaltending, and physicality. They definitely wanted to give their fans a show, especially the seniors playing their last ever game in Pilgrim.
“It’s awesome seeing all my best friends, my family, there’s nothing better,” explained senior captain Colin Lasch after the game. “There’s no town like Hingham. This is everything I’ve wished for and a great way to end it here.”
The goals came in pairs for the Harbormen. Junior Conal Mulkerrin scored the first two. Followed by Lasch’s short-handed goal minutes into the second period. Then junior Cam McKenna and freshman Nick Bigelow alternated the next four goals.
The top line of Mulkerrin, Lasch, and McKenna had 9 points last night (4G, 5A) giving them an eye-popping 102 points (44G, 58A) on the season. The production is evenly spread out – Mulkerrin leads the team with 37 total points, Lasch leads with 25 assists, and McKenna with 24 goals on the season.
“I think we are showing that our chemistry together is insane,” McKenna said. “I was plus six tonight, Conal and Lasch – plus seven. We are really able to move the puck well with each other and find the back of the net.”
Lasch credits their unselfish play and trying to find McKenna as much as possible.
“We’re all unselfish players,” Lasch went on to say. “Cam McKenna is a goal scorer so Conal and I try to get the puck to him as much as we can. We always know where everyone is on the ice, always looking for the extra pass and it worked out today.”
The offense wasn’t the only thing on display last night. The defense came out after a slow first period and looked to set the tone, especially from senior Andrew Palek, who had some board-rattling hits to open the second period.
“In the first period we came out, we were super slow,” said Palek. “We weren’t really hitting any guys, tie game (1-1), so we went in the locker room we were like we need to shape this up. We came out firing. We were lifting each other up and that’s we started laying bodies and putting the pucks on the net.”
Not that the crowd needed any else to get them fired up, but the big hits didn’t hurt. Junior goaltender Mike Karo had another big night allowing only one goal in two periods before junior James Whitmore took over in net in the third.
Next up for the Harbormen is St. John’s Shrewsbury on Sunday at 6:30pm back at the their second home, the Canton Ice House. The Harbormen beat this team a few weeks ago at home 7-0. While it’s good to still be the “home” team, nothing will compare to last night.
“It was unreal,” Palek added. “I’m never gonna forget this, just seeing the crowd, walking down for warm-ups, it is one of the best moments in my life. It was awesome.”
