First Boys' Hockey wins 51st Annual Flood-Marr Tournament Championship with Last-Minute Heroics

The Martlets capped an incredible Flood-Marr Tournament run with a thrilling, last-second victory over an undefeated Kimball Union Academy team on Sunday afternoon to take home the tournament championship trophy. KUA, showing why it earned a spot in the final game, put heavy offensive pressure on the Westminster defense from the opening whistle. Stephan Gasior '16 was able to keep the score sheet clean through the first period, making a number of impressive saves, but the Wildcats finally found the go-ahead goal in the middle frame after a KUA player chipped his own rebound into the fabric. Still trailing 0-1 in the third period, the Martlets pushed forward on offense and applied relentless pressure on defense in the hopes of creating scoring opportunities and forcing Wildcat errors. With just over 10 minutes remaining the effort paid off. A KUA player, hounded by pressure from Martlet Defenseman Patrick Dawson '18, made a shaky pass backwards that skipped into his own team's net to tie the score 1-1. The final minutes of the game were tense and exhilarating, as both teams battled for the winning goal, but neither could find it. With the clock running down to under one minute in the period, overtime seemed imminent until Johnny McDermott '16 won the puck in the Wildcats' end and passed it to Taggart Corriveau '16, who found J.P. Schuhlen '16 unguarded in front of the net. With :26 seconds left, Schuhlen blasted the puck past the Wildcat keeper to give the Martlets the lead and the win!

Highlights from the run-up to the championship game:

Westminster's First Boys' Hockey team, riding a 3-0 start into the annual Flood-Marr Tournament, won its opening games over Hotchkiss and Phillips Andover and then tied Nobles & Greenough to earn a spot in the tournament championship game against a tough Kimball Union Academy squad on Sunday, December 20.

The Martlets overcame a slow start in the opening game of the tournament to win 6-1 over the Hotchkiss Bearcats on Friday afternoon. Taggart Corriveau '16 scored in the first to put Westminster on top 1-0, but at the start of the second it was still anyone's game. Hotchkiss equalized early in the middle frame, but J.P. Schuhlen '16 scored two in a row, followed by another goal from Corriveau, to give the Martlets a commanding 4-1 lead to start the final period. Westminster controlled the rest of the game, with another two goals coming from Jayme Stepto '16 and Schuhlen to close out a convincing opening game win.

On Saturday morning, Westminster took on a good Phillips Andover team in its second game of the tournament and was able to net four goals against Andover's talented goalie to win 4-2. The Andover goalie ended up with 41 saves - a testament to the Martlets' relentless offensive pressure. Stepto put the birds on the board in the opening period, but Andover tied it up early in the second. Max Torrez '18 put Westminster back on top later in that period, and Corriveau scored twice in the final frame to put the game out of reach. Corriveau's two goals led the team, while J.P. Schuhlen '16 added two assists, and goalie Stephen Gasior finished with 19 saves.

Later in the day, the Martlets took on Nobles & Greenough for a chance to earn a spot in the championship game. Once again, Stepto started the scoring, giving Westminster a 1-0 lead at the end of the first. Johnny Mcdermott '16 scored to give the Black and Gold a two-goal cushion, but Nobles fought back to tie it up with two quick back-to-back goals. McDermott scored the go-ahead goal at the end of the middle frame, but Nobles would once again find the equalizer in the third to force the game to overtime. Despite a number of good scoring opportunities, neither team could find the winner, and the game ended after a full overtime period knotted at 3-3. The tie was good enough to put the Martlets in the Flood-Marr Championship game, as the boys ride an undefeated 6-0-1 record into a big matchup against Kimball Union Academy.