End Of The Road For Shawsheen Tech Hockey Team

Knowing what he knew about the Marblehead High hockey team, didn't get a good night's rest on Friday.

Baker's Rams had faced off against Marblehead in the sectional championship game in each of the last two seasons, and he knew he'd be seeing most of the same faces that had beaten Shawsheen, 3-0 in the sectional final last March.

"This is something I went to bed thinking about last night, knowing this could happen," Baker said after watching Marblehead overpower his team, 6-2, in the MIAA Division 3 North Sectional championship game Saturday evening at the Chelmsford Forum. "We're playing against a team that we beat (in the sectional championship game) two years ago and the vast majority of those (Marblehead) kids were playing key roles as sophomores then. I knew they were gonna have a good team last year, and especially this year when those kids became seniors."

 Unfortunately for the Rams. Baker's premonition was right on the money. Eventually.

For the first 15 minutes Friday night, there was no telling who would take the rubber game, as Shawsheen battled the 'Headers dead even for a period, and went to the intermission tied 2-2.

But the ice was tilted decidedly in Marblehead's favor in the final two periods. The Northeastern Conference South Division champions out hit and out hustled Shawsheen, breaking open the 2-2 deadlock by scoring four unanswered goals over the game's final 30 minutes.

"We got outplayed (in the last two periods)," Baker said. "There was no other aspect of it. We just got outplayed."

Marblehead jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 2:56 into the first period when junior forward Austin Haley slammed home a loose puck in front of the Shawsheen net. But it took the Rams just 1:07 to respond, as junior forward Mike DiGiorgio, of Tewksbury, snapped a low angle shot past Header goalie Tony Cuzner, after grabbing the rebound of a Ryan Capraro slap shot. Junior forward Tom Price also assisted.

Shawsheen took a 2-1 lead with 2:43 to play in the first when the Rams' other Tewksbury born sharpshooter, junior forward Joe Sodergren, converted the rebound of a Tom Price slap shot.

But Marblehead's Jake Kulevich, the 2011 NEC South's Most Valuable Player, tied the game at two apiece with just 53 seconds left in the first frame, and that's when the momentum switched the 'Headers way.

For the game's final two periods, Shawsheen Teach struggled to even get the puck out of their own defensive zone. The Rams managed just two shots on goal in the second period, and only a handful more in the third.

"They were all over us," Baker said. "Especially my key guys that I usually get a lot of scoring out of."

Still, the Rams trailed by only a goal going into the last period, and Baker was hopeful that his team could snap out of its funk and turn the tables on Marblehead.

"Sometimes when the ice is lopsided like that they're at a disadvantage," Baker said. "But we didn't come out (in the third period) the way I expected."

Marblehead struck early and often, scoring three times in the first 4:41 of the final period. At 6-2 with 10 minutes to play, a comeback was all but out of the question for Shawsheen.

After the game, Baker clutched the divisional runner-up trophy and found plenty of positives about his team's 18-5-1 season, which included a 10-0 romp through the Commonwealth Athletic Conference, a CAC championship and a State Vocational School Championship.

"When we came into the season I was looking at my (defensive) corps and I was thinking 'I've got kids that didn't see a (varsity) shift last year,'" Baker said. "I had a couple of (junior varsity) kids that came up out of our feeder system and I didn't know what I was gonna get.

"So to get to the North (Sectional) final is a huge honor for for this program at this point."

With 19 players on his 2011 varsity roster returning, Baker is already looking forward to next season.

"Next year I'm expecting big things," Baker said. "I feel bad for my seniors right now, but I'm expecting big things when all our juniors become seniors. We could be in a situation like Marblehead is in right now."

So would Baker like to see Marblehead in the sectional championship game for a fourth straight year next March?

"Absolutely," he said. "I'd like to see them in the same game and I'd like to play them during the season. I'd love to see them again."

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie