Freshman strikes in OT as Plymouth South boys hockey snaps Scituate's unbeaten streak

PLYMOUTH -- The Plymouth South High boys hockey team is somewhat unique in that its top three scorers usually play on different lines.

"That's kind of the style of the team right now, the structure of the team," coach Steve Whyte explained. "We don't have all of our eggs in one basket."

In overtime, though, egg distribution can be adjusted.

With the Panthers skating 4-on-4 in a five-minute extra period Wednesday night against Patriot League rival Scituate, Whyte decided to put leading scorer Liam Kailher and Sean McNamara, tied for second in points on the team, on the ice together. The mix-and-match paid dividends as Kailher, a freshman, converted a rebound of McNarama's shot to lift South to a 4-3 victory that snapped the Sailors' six-game unbeaten streak.

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"I just thought they were both playing well tonight," Whyte said of the decision. "Sean was going hard and Liam brings speed to the game. I liked them out there in OT. We had Mason Miller up on the point, too. He's typically a forward. I just tried to go with guys who were moving tonight and feeling it and looking good. It worked out for us."

Kailher started the winning sequence by leading a rush out of his defensive zone up the right side. At the offensive blue line he shoveled the puck over to McNamara, whose seven goals are tops on the team. Scituate goalie Thomas McMellen made a left pad save on McNamara's shot from the high slot, but Kailher knifed in among three Sailors, lunged for the puck and slid it past McMellen.

There was a bit of a delayed celebration as it took the Panthers a moment to realize the game was over.

"It kind of trickled in," Kailher said. "Wasn't a pretty goal, but it's exciting."

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Kailher, who came in with seven assists, now has four goals on the season.

"He's doing well," Whyte said. "He goes a hundred miles an hour every time he's on the ice. And he's got some skills. He's definitely brought some new life and new energy to the team."

The win allowed the Panthers (7-2 overall, 4-2 Patriot League) to equal their win total from all of last season when they finished 7-14, losing in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs to eventual state runner-up Canton.

Why the big turnaround this winter?

"Me as a young coach, I think a lot of things started to click for me last year and a lot of things started to click with the boys," said Whyte, now in his fourth season. "We had a big junior class last year and now they're seniors this year. We've done a pretty good job of carrying the momentum of the end of last season into this season. They know the expectations. This has been the first group that I've had for all four years. There has been a lot less need for reiteration of concepts this year and that's given us the chance to explore more in-depth stuff (in terms of strategy)."

This was only South's second OT game of the season, and the ending was a big improvement on the first one -- a 2-1 loss to town rival Plymouth North on Jan. 4.

"That was definitely a tough loss," Kailher recalled.

North, which followed South onto the ice Wednesday night, is saddled with a 2-5 record after losing to Duxbury, 5-3. But, as the saying goes, you can throw the records out the window when North and South collide.

"Those games have nothing to do with talent; it's about managing emotions," Whyte said. "That was a big learning moment for us this year, for sure. That was the biggest crowd that anybody (on our team) has ever played in front of. I think the focus and the preparation was all there. I think the execution on game day wasn't there. It was mostly due to how we dealt with the pressure, the crowd, the energy of the game. It definitely knocked us off our game a bit. And then once you get to overtime anything can happen."

In contrast, Whyte liked how the Panthers handled the pressure against Scituate, falling behind 1-0 after a blah first period and then staying the course through a wild four-goal third period that saw the Sailors twice claw back to tie the game. Logan Souza, Declan Day and Mason Miller had South's goals in regulation.

"The resolve that we showed in the late stages of the game, where it's a tight hockey game, the pressure's high (was impressive)," Whyte said. "This was a good test for us and the boys handled it pretty well."

As for Scituate (5-3-2, 3-2-2 Patriot League), the Sailors must feel a little snakebit in OT. This was their fourth overtime of the season and they've yet to win, losing 4-3 to Pembroke and tying Duxbury, 4-4, and Hanover, 3-3. Scituate lost the Duxbury game in a shootout (because it was a tournament), but the MIAA doesn't recognize those.

"There are games I look back on and I feel that they were within reach; we'd love to have a couple of them back," Scituate coach Brian Hurcombe said. "But that's the Patriot League. We're just going to keep moving forward. Everything's a challenge (in this league). Back to the drawing board."

Scituate, by our calculations, doubled up South in shots during regulation (24-12) and did not commit a penalty. That second item might have been a mixed blessing, though. Hurcombe said the coaching staff, in trying to get the Sailors to reduce their time in the penalty box, might have taken the edge out of their game.

"Penalties are inevitable," Hurcombe said. "They're going to happen when you're playing hard. I think we maybe stressed that a little too much as a coaching staff. We didn't take one penalty but we walk out of here with a loss. So that's on us. We really have to let them play hockey the way that we play. We play a physical game. We need to get back to doing what we do well which is outworking teams, taking the body. If a referee is going to interpret that as a penalty when we take the body we're just going to have to deal with that. Because we can't play (safe) anymore."

Dan Brown, Teagen Pratt and Timmy Lochiatto scored for Scituate. Hurcombe has been preaching the need to diversify the goal-scoring beyond the No. 1 line of Pratt, James Sullivan and Johnny Donahue, so seeing Brown and Lochiatto (who skate with Jackson Belsan) was a good sign.

Hurcombe also liked the fight his team showed in the wild third period, which featured four goals (two by each team) in the final 10 minutes. South twice took the lead, 2-1 and 3-2, only to see the Sailors answer, the second time on Lochiatto's goal with 3:31 left in regulation.

"One thing about our team is that we never quit," Hurcombe said. "We've been down and come back many times to tie games. Nobody ever quits, nobody gets down, which is a good sign. We have a lot of resilience; we'll keep at it. We feel like we're getting better all the time. We'll learn from this one."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Freshman lifts Plymouth South boys hockey past Scituate in OT