St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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1944f45 ICEMEN Seated: O'Bricn, Murphy, Mulhcrn, McGrath, Phillips, Barry Smfzdirzg- Glashccn, Nee1on,Fathcr Cuffs, McCarron, Nawn, Egan, McDonald, Ellard, Green, Dunbar McNabb, Slattery, Ford, W. Gibbons, Quirk, Deignan, A. McAuliffe, Coach Murphy 82

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x 9 4 5 JTJ, Nil.-- gr. if J SAINT SEBASTIAN'S did not enter into hockey competition until the winter of 1943-1944, which marked our Junior year. Candidates for the team reported to Coach Murphy shortly before the Christmas recess, and the turn-out was approximately 25 boys. Dan O'Brien who had been the motivating force behind the new project was appointed cap- tain. Our preliminary training was done in the gym which adapted itself nicely to the practicing of marksmanship. At long last outdoor ice became available during the holidays and we were fortunate enough to have the Angel Guardian rink placed at our disposal. Daringly enough it was decided that we should enter the newly-formed Catholic Hockey League which was to play its games at the Boston Skating Club. The league was to be a six-club circuit and we were to be in the company of Malden Catholic, St. Patrick's of Stoneham, St. Mary's of Waltham, St. Clement's of Somerville and Mission High. We were not entirely inexperienced when we faced off against St. Mary's on the league- opening Saturday night. We had a few practice games under our collective belt and these had resulted in rather easy wins. The sextet that wore the Red and Black against the Waltham entry was made up of Phillips, Slattery and Mulhern in the forward line, Captain Dan O'Brien and Jimmy Collins at the defense posts, and Paul McGrath in the net. It may have been that the indoor rink was an unfamiliar setting for our lads, or that the enthusiastic crowd disconcerted them- but, whatever the reason, our debut was not a brilliant success but a reverse that was recorded as 2-O. Analyzing the defeat, the coach attributed it to the inability of our forwards to lift the puck and wing it past the goalie. The following week brought us back to the Skating Club with the determination to redeem ourselves for our poor showing of the previous Saturday night. Our foe this time was Mission, and we skated on to the ice with one change in our line-up, Hank Barry replacing Slattery. We found the Roxbury lads rather weak and our forwards were able to turn on the red light practically at will, amassing ten points to Mission's none. Our first real test came on January 29th when we were introduced to Malden Catho- liC's icemen. We managed to get the jump on our Fellsway rivals in the second period when Hank ragged his way solo up to the mouth of the net and blazed the puck past the guardian. From that point on we had all we could do to keep up with the foe for they had the edge on us in reserves and made frequent substitutions. They caught us at last, however, just before the end of the game, passing Paul McGrath to dent the strings and earn a l-1 tie. The tempo of our next contest was just as fast and furious, for we were paired up with St. Patrick's of Stoneham, as rugged an outfit as any sextet in the league. Both sides skated rather warily in the opening minutes fthe Stoneham boys had heard of our 14-O win over Browne and NicholsD but the Northern- ers turned on the heat towards the end of

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the period and scored twice, before Mul revived our spirits by tallying once. In the second stanza, the Hibernians added two more, while our best was Phillips' singleton. Trailing then by two points we came out for our last chance and Hank set the pace by driving home a well-placed pass. Sensing the threat, Stoneham pulled out all the stops and made another to lead now, 543. We were not through yet, however, for Mul once more snaked his way through the de- fense and tricked the enemy goalie to change the tune to 5-4. In the remaining few min- utes we made it as hot as we could for the St. Patrick's netman, but he was equal to the occasion and thwarted our every attempt. When the final horn blew the spectators gave a demonstrationiof spontaneous and pro- longed applause that lasted fully five minutes. We ended the first round of the league schedule by skating circles around St. Clem- ent's and carrying away a 6-2 verdict, com- piled by Mulhern, Phillips and Ellard. Mui had his name announced three times and Phillips heard his, twice. When the half- way totals were counted, itiwas found that the standing put St. Patrick's first, Malden second and the Red and Black, third. The second half of the schedule got under way on February 19th when we polished off St. Mary's Sal, and thereby revenged the defeat the Waltham lads inflicted on us the night of our league debut. The three regular forwards all scored, Phillips getting three, while Mul and Hank had to be content with one apiece. The defensive play of O'Brien, Collins and McGrath also featured this afternoon contest. A week later, against Mission, we also had a rather easy time of it, although the Roxbury team held us to six tallies and succeeded in registering two themselves. The marksmen this time were Phillips with three, Mulhern with two and Hank with one. The victory was a costly one, however, for, after scoring his last goal, Phillips was unable to check his momentum and consequently crashed head on into one of the metal posts that support the cage. His services were lost to the team for ten days. On the first Saturday in March we tangled again with Malden Catholic, both teams being doubly anxious to take the contest since the first meeting had ended in a 1--1 deadlock. Mul put us out in front before the game was many minutes old by a beautiful solo that paid dividends. Although the pressure was terrific all through the fracas, Paul McGrath was unyielding and frustrated every Malden attempt until the last two minutes of the third period. It was then that our lack of reserves told a tale, for with our martyred regulars practically out on their feet , Paul Kelley was able to score twice in a hundred and twenty seconds, once on a solo and once on a pass from Walsh. The win put Malden out in front in the league race, but, as one of the newspapers put it: If Phillips had been in the game to help Mulhern and Barry along, St. Sebastian's might have been able to knock Malden Catholic out of the fight for league leader- ship. It was not until the following week, how- ever, that Vin's boys reached the peak of their season's form. Their top exhibition was put on for the benefit of St. Patrick's, the league-leading foe that had taken us into camp 5-4, earlier in the season. Phillips was back and he machine-gunned Mul's feed to hang up the first marker of the game, half- way through the second period. We clung to this frail lead until the third period when a pass, relayed from Mosley to jordan and then to Ed Kelley, was banged past Paul McGrath by the eagle-eyed Kell . From that point on, both sides gave everything they had, peppering the rival goalies time and time again. When we scored again it was on a beautiful piece of timing that de- servedly gave us the decision. With Mul in the penalty box, the Stoneham gliders bore down on Paul McGrath in flying wedge formation, doing their best to take advantage of our short-handedness. In the melee that ensued around our cage, Hank was finally