March Madness

March Madness

On Saturday March 5th, the North Quincy Boys Hockey Team will take on the Bishop Stang Spartans Hetland Arena in New Bedford, MA in the first round of the MIAA Division 3 State Tournament. The Raiders earned the 24 seed with a record of 4-16 and the Spartans earned the 9 seed with a record of 17-2-1.

How did the Raiders get here? A team that wins 4 games in the regular season usually won’t find themselves playing in the state tournament but with the new power ranking format the MIAA has gone with, the Raiders found themselves in a playoff spot. Previously, teams had to earn 20 points, a win equaled 2 points and a tie was 1 point. The new system is very confusing to say the least. The math equation combines with the team’s value and the average opponent value and the top 32 teams based on the ranking system or any teams with 10 wins qualify. The Raiders had one of the highest opponent rankings playing in the always tough Patriot League. They played some of the best public school programs on the South Shore like Scituate and Hanover twice and other powers like Duxbury and Marshfield.

The Raiders won an early season contest against Pembroke Titans, Patriot League Member, and had a massive overtime victory against the Scituate Sailors, who earned the 2 seed in D3, behind a hat trick from Senior Captain Johnny Lynch and the OT winner from Junior Noah Kearney. They also earned important late season victories against Somerville and Matignon. The Raiders have taken some lumps this season including a tough loss against cross-city rival Quincy High School on Senior night. They have stayed together and shown improvement all year long. They have been led this year by Senior captain and Patriot League All Star Johnny Lynch (11 goals, 9 assists), Juniors James Rogers (7 goals, 3 assists) and Noah Kearney (3 goals, 7 assists). Sophomore goalie Aiden McGuinness has shown great improvement all season and is playing his best hockey in his first season as a varsity starter.

The Spartans have been good all season led by their top line of Senior Justin Gouviea (25 goals, 21 assists), Senior Jack Jedrey (11 goals, 21 assists) and Sophomore Quinn Pine (20 goals, 19 assists). Senior captains Tyler Beck (3 goals, 3 assists)and Seamus Marshall (12 goals, 13 assists) anchor the back end on defense. Senior Matt Dore (1.10 GAA) and Junior Brayden Bennett (1.14 GAA) have made for an excellent duo in between the pipes. They split the season series with rival Dartmouth High School. The Spartans earned decisive wins against Cardinal Spellman, Bourne and Matignon.

Saturday night was simply electric, everything about it from the game to the crowd and the noise it’s exactly what the MIAA tournament is all about. The Raiders silenced the hostile crowd early, when Senior Martin O’Flaherty beat Bennett over the left shoulder 54 seconds into the game and Lynch added a 2nd tally shortly after to go up 2-0. Coach Ken Gouveia called a timeout and swapped Bennett for Dore. The timeout paid off as the Spartans scored the next 4 goals. They got tallies from Jedrey, Gouviea twice, and Senior Ryan Barros.

North Quincy trailed going into the final frame, but there was confidence amongst the Raiders that they would come. Raiders head coach Matt Gibbons said, “We just came in the room and said we've just got to get back to what we were doing at the beginning of the game. ... We didn't play like we were down 4-2, we just played our game." Lynch completed his 2nd hat-trick of the season in the final 8 minutes to knot things up at 4.

The game then went to an 8 minute 4v4 sudden death overtime period and then another 3v3 8 minute period. McGuiness took over from here. Denying the Spartans on 4 breakaways and multiple grade A scoring chances to keep the season alive. Then with short time remaining in the second overtime, Kearney picked up a loose puck in the defensive zone and went in on a 2v1 with Lynch. The lone Spartans defender laid down on the ice to eliminate a cross ice pass but Kearney showed fantastic patience going around the defender and slid it over to Lynch who tapped it in and the celebration was on for the Raiders. Lynch said of his heroic goal, “When I saw the puck cross the line from a perfect pass from Kearney who I have been playing with since I was 8 years old it was a certain feeling I would never forget.”

Lynch and McGuiness did not do it alone. For the game, they peppered the Spartans netminders with 47 shots compared to the 23 shots faced by McGuiness. Seniors Michael Gorman, Captain, and Kevin Salmanowich provided helpers. Juniors David Dantona and Vinny O’Leary also had assists.

For all the players the celebration with each other and the reaction they got from their peers, family members and Massachusetts hockey fans was a memory that would last a lifetime. A video of Lynch’s game winning goal got more than 15,000 views on the team’s twitter page.

The Raiders advance to the round of 16 and will take on the Danvers Falcons on Tuesday March 8th at 5:30 P.M. at the Essex Sports Center. Danvers is 10-7-4 and defeated Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School 6-1 in the round of 32.