Scituate Hockey Back on the Map

Results of the March 2nd Medway vs. Scituate South Sectionals tournament game in Brockton was the talk of the town after junior Tommy Marhoffer put the nail in the coffin with the game-winning shot in the 9th round of the shootout. The minds of the Scituate coaches raced as they were rushed to put together a list of five shooters. What neither team expected was the game to endure three 15-minute periods, two six-minute overtimes, and nine rounds of a shootout. The game ended with one goal by Marhoffer and one save by senior David Sheehan. It was the first round back in the playoffs for the boys in blue in two years. The Sailors failed to make the state tournament in the 2014-15 season but bounced back this season — going on to win two more games.

The Sailors spent the majority of the Medway game ahead 3-0; however, during the second period, Medway came back and scored one goal. They scored two more goals during the third period to push the game into overtime at 3-3.

After two tense periods of overtime, the game was forced into several rounds of shootouts. Medway selected their five shooters, and Scituate chose its five players, consisting of juniors Matt Loud, Mike Norton, and Jake Mccarthy. Sophomores David Murray and Ryan Harrigan were also put to the test by Coach Breen. All went down to no avail — except for Murray: his goal struck energy into the team and into the crowd. The next Medway shooter came down to put one past Sheehan, and tensions continued to rise as the shootout never seemed to end.

The stalemate raged until  Marhoffer skated onto the ice. All the air seemed to be sucked out of Asiaf Arena when Marhoffer first touched the puck at center ice. As he momentarily lost the puck right in front of the highly regarded Medway goalie, he dexterously managed to pull it on his backhand and slide it under the body of the sprawling goaltender. Marhoffer said, “I just thought of Pavel Datsyuk, and I had tried the move in practice on David, I so decided to give it a try.” The entire crowd erupted, shaking the foundation of the arena as Marhoffer put home the goal that created a lasting memory for Scituate hockey fans and all citizens of the underdog number ten seed.