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The magic ends for Marblehead

Thursday, March, 13 By Mike Grenier
Staff writer

WORCESTER | The Marblehead High hockey team had an otherwordly state tournament run, beating teams it wasn't supposed to beat and playing like it was destined to go out on top.

But the Headers not only ran out of miracles, they ran out of steam against Scituate last night.

For a team that drove deep into the tourney by winning low-scoring, brilliantly defended games, Marblehead played completely out of character, surrendering four goals within the first nine minutes en route to an 8-2 loss to the Sailors in the Division 3 state semifinals at the DCU Center.

From the Headers' (14-11) perspective, there weren't many 'what ifs' in this one.
Defending state champion Scituate was bigger, quicker, stronger and put Marblehead in a desperation mode with its lightning-fast start. It was 4-1 after one period, 6-2 after two, and you never got the sense that the Headers were really in it as they were outshot, 40-17.

"That was a very talented team," Eric Fader, one of only two seniors on the Marblehead team, said of Scituate (13-6-5), which seems like a good bet to capture its second straight state title Sunday when they face Western Mass. champion Westfield at the TD Banknorth Garden. "No excuses from us. They executed their game plan, and we got away from ours."

Scituate, which has to be one of the best No. 15 seeds the state tourney has seen in a long time, couldn't have dreamed up a faster way to put the Headers back on their heels early in the game.

Marblehead junior goalie Aaron Reny hadn't allowed a goal in 98:11, but the Sailors suddenly got to him as Brad Stenbeck, Danny Galvin (two in a row on the way to a hat trick) and Mac Luciani pushed it to 4-0 with more than six minutes still left in the opening period.

How unusual was that for Marblehead? Well, the Headers had given up just six goals in the entire postseason and were coming off back-to-back 1-0 shutouts.
"It was devastating (to be down by that much so quickly)," said Fader. "We were shellshocked."

To Marblehead's credit, it didn't take the rest of the night off or get chippy. Instead, the Headers jumped back into the game with two straight goals after Scituate, perhaps feeling a bit too confident, took needless penalties.

Marblehead scored on a pair of 5 on 3 situations, with sophomore Anders Gunderson and freshman Ben Koopman doing the honors to cut it to 4-2 at 4:53 of the second period.

"We didn't want to be playing that way (taking penalties), especially with a four-goal lead," said Scituate coach Mike Breen, whose team has reached the Division 3 state semifinals for the five straight years. "A two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey.

"We talked to the kids about just playing our game and not trying to intimidate (Marblehead) by being too physical. We have the experience and they have a lot of freshmen, but I didn't think they could be intimidated. They weren't. Marblehead didn't fold. They skated hard and played hard for all three periods."

Still, the Headers (2 for 6 on the power play) couldn't keep up the pace after narrowing it to 4-2. Marblehead was playing shorthanded due to a penalty when Luciani made it 5-2 at 7:26 of the middle period. Duggan stretched it to 6-2 with an unassisted tally at 13:06, and the Headers just didn't have the weapons to dig out of such a deep hole.

"I was surprised that we got up that big that early," said Breen. "We didn't have too much (information) on them. We knew they had an excellent goalie and they kept the scores down. We weren't (necessarily shooting high (to beat Reny). We always tell our kids to shoot low, but it doesn't always happen."

Like the Marblehead players said, they never got a chance to play their game. Scituate wouldn't let them.

"It got out of hand," said senior forward Jackson Barber. "A lot of the guys were down (when it was 4-0). But we didn't think it was impossible to come back. We've been down against other teams and come back. But they capitalized on our mistakes and were the better team.

"We came out flat," added Barber. "We tried to flip the switch and this time it didn't go on. They were a really good team. I hope they win it."

Marblehead coach Bobby Jackson tried to spark his team any way he could. He pulled Reny when it was 4-0 and went with freshman goalie Tony Cuzner (Reny would play again in the third period), but the crux of the problem was that the Headers couldn't generate consistent offense.

"Scoring the first goal in a game like this is such a big momentum thing," said Duggan. "Getting four goals in quick fashion made it even better. It took a lot of pressure off us."

Marblehead didn't collapse under pressure; it just lost to a superior opponent. There was no shame in that, and it didn't detract from a season in which the Headers created lifetime memories for themselves and their fans.

Additional stories:

• Headers can learn from this experience
• Headers eager to prove this season was no fluke