BC High Icemen secure 2nd straight state title – in 4 OTs

BC High’s hockey players and their coaches celebrate their second straight state title on the ice at TD Garden on Sunday.

A freshman on BC High’s varsity hockey team scored the winning goal in a four-overtime 2-1 thriller against Pope Francis on Sunday night as the Eagles took their second straight Division 1 “Super 8” championship trophy back to Morrissey Boulevard.

The game broke the record for the longest recorded in Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) history, stretching past three and a half hours and totaling 87 minutes of ice time, or roughly the equivalent of two full hockey games.

Declan Loughnane, a freshman defenseman, broke the deadlock with five minutes left in the fourth and final overtime period, attaining instant hero status. To some, Loughnane might appear an unlikely savior. But not to head coach John Flaherty.

“I was not really surprised,” he told the Reporter. “He was having a great game, and he’s had a great year for us. He’s been an impact player all year.”

Loughnane wasn’t the only hero of the evening. Over an hour earlier, with just over a minute to play in the third period, Joseph Kramer scored to give the Eagles their first goal and send the game into overtime. The last-minute theatrics were eerily similar to last year’s victory, when after trailing through three periods, the Eagles scored with 51 seconds remaining and went on to win in overtime.

Another key performer for the Eagles was goalie Chase Congdon, who kept the puck out of his team’s net for essentially six straight periods following the Cardinals’ opening goal. “He made save after save,” said Flaherty. “There were really three or four times when the game could have been ended by them if it weren’t for him.”

As one overtime period gave way to the next, Flaherty said, his players reached for any bit of energy they had left. At each break, he reminded them to “stay in the moment. We just kept talking about how, you know, you gotta believe you can get it done,” he explained. “We’re just one shot away from ending it.”

For Flaherty, the craziness of the evening didn’t completely register until afterward.“Watching it after, it’s got to be one of, if not the most, exciting high school hockey games that’s ever been played,” he said.

And his players can take pride in knowing that they weren’t just a part of that historic game – they won it.

“Lifelong memories; that’s what high school sports is supposed to be about,” said Flaherty. “Now those kids can look back and see themselves in the record book, in the history book.”


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