St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

Page 96 text:

Doherty stepped between the gaspipes and did a creditable piece of work. The Catholic League season opened on December 7th at the Skating Club and the schedule paired us olf against St. Mary's of Waltham, a team that had the Indian sign on us the year before, defeating us once and holding us to a tie in our second meet- ing. During the first period and halfway through the second stanza of the encounter, it looked as if the tie of the preceding year might be duplicated, because while we dominated the play and pressed the action from the start, our efforts did not pay off with scores. Even when the opposition was undermanned via the penalty route, our shots were either off the beam or were de- flected by the hard-working Trudeau. It was not until 8:20 of the second chapter that we succeeded in turning on the red light. At that moment, Joe Deignan, who fairly Hew along the ice, intercepted a Wal- tham pass and, on a quick break-away, car- ried to within 25 feet of the net and then, without lifting the disc, pushed it past the guardian. Not content with this slim mar- gin, we kept the pressure on St. Mary's when the third period opened and our offensive tactics were rewarded within two minutes by a second goal. This was Bob Murphy's contribution and it came during a melee in front of the Waltham goal with Bob back- handing a pass from Slats and winging it past Trudeau. The same Co-Captain com- bination was responsible for the final tally with just about a minute of play remain- ing. At that time Young was in the penal- ty box and Murph carried it deep beyond lone defenseman Sullivan. As the latter was challenging his possession of the rubber, Bob slipped out a feed to Slats who whizzed it squarely at the goalie. In unpredictable fashion, the puck hit his protector, rolled up his arm and dropped behind him to give us a 3-0 decision. With seconds left, the Waltham coach removed his net-minder to give his sextet six skaters, but Bruce was equal to their surge and preserved his shut- out to the end. That he did whitewash the opposition in his League debut was due in no small part to his experienced defense- men, jack Boyle and Bill Gibbons, who DEFENSE STAR johnny on the Spot gave him plenty of protection in front of the cage. The following Saturday we crossed sticks with our arch rivals, Malden Catholic, and, in anticipation of a titanic battle, every nook and cranny of the Speedway rink over- flowed with spectators. The fact that for the past two years the two teams had waged a nip and tuck battle for the championship added a tang to the engagement and many fans saw in it an opportunity to predict the outcome of the 1946-47 race. From the opening whistle, the tide of battle resumed where it had left off in our 2-1 win last year and the aggressive play produced six penalties in the first ten minutes. We drew first blood in the opening chapter when Bob Murphy powered home a set-up from Egan at a time when both sextets had a man off the ice. For the next 13 minutes, neither

Page 95 text:

We 'fn xl ,ff OCKEY is undoubtedly the most mag- netic attraction in the sports' cycle at St. Sebastian's, and its advent is hailed each year with greater enthusiasm than any other athletic competition stimulates. For four years now, the School has sponsored an ice team that has carried the Red and Black colors into the forefront of Catholic League and private school ranks, and the ex- ploits of each year's sextet have been fol- lowed by an ever-increasing number of loy- al fans who have packed the Skating Club on Saturday nights and traveled to remote sections of the state to watch our gliders in action. During the first three Catholic League ice campaigns that we engaged in, we were always a potent factor that never ended up lower than third in the race and we achieved the co-championship once and the runner-up post in 1945-46. Those same three Hockey seasons were highly spiced by the brilliant play of our jack Mulhern who could always be relied upon to provide a thrilling maneuver that would pull out a victory or avert a defeat. As soon as Football departed the scene last November, Coach Vin Murphy an- nounced a meeting of all Hockey candidates and, as usual, his invitation was accepted by every St. Sebastian lad who had ever worn skates. There was just enough time, before the League season began, to hold three Friday night practice sessions at the Skating Club and to evaluate the material available. In these preliminary workouts, the coach's chief worries were to find suc- cessors to fill the shoes of Captain Paul Mc- Grath and Center Iceman jack Mulhern who had graduated the previous june. The first named problem disappeared almost at once when Bruce Harrigan of St. john, N. B., declared himself a candidate for the net-minder's job. Small in stature, but ever alert and quick to size up a situation, the newcomer proved himself a real asset from the start. To cope with his great loss in the line, the coach transferred Co-Captain Bob Murphy into Mul's spot, stationed Co-Cap- tain jack Slattery at right wing and tried out Bob Egan at left wing. That this frontier trio would have plenty of trouble in entrenching itself as the regular line was indicated by the frequency with which Joe Deignan, Frank Hennessey, Jim Ryan and Russ MacDonald saw service in the practice scrimmages. At the defense berths, Vin was fortunate to have the two regular start- ers of last season, Jack Boyle and Bill Gib- bons, back again, but this bright prospect was considerably dimmed by the possibility that injuries sustained in Football might prevent them from starting the campaign. In that event, the competition would be keen between Ed Quirk, joe Ford, Bob Joyce, Tom Hartnett and Jack Skehan. Besides the front-liners mentioned above, Belmont Bob Kelly, graduate from last year's Diaper Line, was a factor to be reck- oned with and won himself the pivot spot in the junior Line which he formed with jim Cotter and Bill Brooks. Among the new candidates, two Freshmen, Paul Gib- bons and Dick Mulhern, showed distinctive stick-handling and skating ability enough to stay with the Varsity and form a new Diaper Line with Murray Regan, holdover from last year's infant trio. To make the practice sessions complete, Harold Field took over the job of understudying Bruce in the cage, and, on occasion, Freshman John

Page 97 text:

side was able to find an opening, although both goalies were called upon to make des- perate saves. Finally, at 7:34 of the middle period Malden's center iceman, Smith, reg- istered on a solo that deadlocked the count. As both defenses were functioning bril- liantly, the stalemate threatened to be permanent until a second goal by Murph unleashed the winds of fury. Playing back on defense temporarily, Bob took the rub- ber away from a rival carrier and took it down to the opposing blue line where he blazed away with a shot that passed Sulli- van and hung up a 2-1 lead for the Red and Black. That lead was short-lived, however, for, a minute later, with Boyle in durance vile for a board check, Smith took a pass from Donahue and turned on the red light to even the count once again. Forty six sec- onds later, Bob Egan, crouched against the sideboards near the Malden blue line, stole the disc from an enemy defenseman who had circled the cage and was in process of heading for our net. With deft stick- handling, Bob evaded the one defender be- tween himself and the net-minder and sent the puck into the upper right hand corner of the goal. While pandemonium still reigned, Malden won the ensuing face-off and bore down on our citadel. A furious melee developed in which Bill Gibbons Fnnnrl if nn:-ocean-1- fn full A.. .Ln ....LL-.. AW net with five men and, in less time than it takes to describe it, Malden's Ford lashed home a Miller feed to make it 3-3 with only a half-minute to go. When the buzzer end- ed hostilities, it came as a welcome relief of the tension created by four goals in three minutes. While we had led all during the contest, Malden was opportunist enough to capitalize on our weakened defense and to emerge with even honors. The third week of League competition brought us to grips with St. Patrick's of Stoneham and, in view of the fact that they had played to a deadlock with Malden in their opening contest, we looked for a bit- ter struggle that could be decided either way. The Red and Black was not at full strength for the engagement, because an in- jury sidelined Jack Slattery and gave joe Deignan a wing starting post. As the first period developed, it was evident that our premonitions of a stiff battle had been jus- tified. Eight times during that first chap- ter penalties were called yet neither side was able to take advantage of the undermanned plight of the other to register until, with four seconds remaining, Bob Murphy found the range with a scorching lift that in- augurated our scoring. Halfway through CAhlT Stone IN Herze- S i 1 PENAQQQQ .,-re 1 SECOND LINE Cotter, McAuliffe, Hennessey X. DIAPER LINE Regan, Paul Gibbons, Mulhern