Third-period goal lifts Reading past Braintree in Division 1 boys hockey quarterfinals

RANDOLPH – The Reading Memorial High boys hockey team sure is Public Enemy No. 1 on the South Shore.

After upsetting third-seeded Hingham (the No. 1 team in our final Patriot Ledger/Enterprise Top 10 list of the regular season) in Sunday's MIAA Division 1 Round of 16, the Rockets once again tapped into their supervillain energy on Wednesday. This time they eliminated No. 11 Braintree, 1-0, in the quarterfinals at Zapustas Arena on Matt Fichera's goal 70 seconds into the third period.

That's two of Ledgerland's best teams sent home in the span of four days by a 14th-seeded Reading team that ended the regular season in a 2-5-1 slump.

The postseason, apparently, is a whole different story as the Rockets have avenged regular-season losses in each of their first three playoff rounds, starting with a 4-1 conquest of No. 19 Woburn and moving on to shutouts of Hingham (4-0) and now Braintree.

More:Wednesday's South Shore high school tournament scoreboard

"One of our coaches, he's Bowdoin-educated so he's smarter than me, he said, 'We're going to start our revenge tour in the state tournament,'" Reading coach Mark Doherty said. "Woburn beat us, Hingham beat us in overtime and Braintree beat us. Three very good opponents. These last two games were amazingly intense. We're just thrilled to have persevered."

Said Fichera: "It's awesome being the No. 14 seed and being in the top four now. It's amazing. Feels great."

With No. 4 Pope Francis edging No. 5 Marshfield, 3-2, on the other side of the bracket, Reading (14-7-3) is now the lone public school in the Division 1 Final Four. The Rockets will play No. 7 Xaverian (15-8) in one semifinal while No. 1 St. John's Prep (20-2-1) squares off against Pope Francis (19-2-3) on the other side.

More:DiMartino plays the hero as Braintree boys hockey edges Weymouth in Div. 1 playoff opener

Carrying the banner for the publics is nothing new for the Rockets, who are one of only three public school programs to win the old Super 8 title. Reading was crowned in 2008 and was followed by Hingham (2010) and Arlington (2017, 2020).

"We in Reading feel we can compete. We always compete," Doherty said. "That's why we play who we play every year. It's definitely nice, but we want to keep playing the best."

"We're definitely the public-school team in the state," Fichera declared. "I feel like we're the best team in the state, period."

Braintree went down swinging

Predictably, the Wamps (14-7-2) were a tough out. Of Braintree's last 10 playoff losses, seven have come by a single goal, including four in overtime. Last year the Wamps lost 3-2 to eventual champ St. John's Prep in the Elite 8. In 2019-20 (remember there were no MIAA playoffs in 2020-21) Braintree fell, 2-1, to Walpole, which ended up sharing the Division 1 crown that season when all the state finals were cancelled due to COVID.

"Last year we lost to St. John's Prep, 3-2, in the Round of 8 and we lost 18 guys (off that team)," Braintree coach Dave Fasano said. "I don't think too many people thought we were going to be back here, especially in January when we were 4-3-1.

"I give kudos to our seniors and our leaders and our captains and our assistant captains. We had a few personnel changes, losing our starting goalie (Jack Fitzpatrick) the first week of the season. It's been a successful season overall. We won the Bay State Conference (Herget Division) for the third time in a row. We played another tough schedule. We played Arlington three times, Reading twice, Marshfield, Pope Francis, Hingham. And we played with all of them. Unfortunately, tonight we came up one (goal) short. But not for a lack of effort, obviously."

This was the first Braintree-Reading playoff meeting since the Rockets won the 2014 state final, 4-1, at TD Garden. The teams squared off in the consolation round of the Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament on Feb. 12 at the Canton Ice House with the Wamps winning 4-2. It was the Rockets' third straight loss.

"They were in the same boat we were," Fasano said of Reading. "In the beginning of the year they were ranked very high. They had a few miscues. We beat them 4-2 five weeks ago and they were kind of going the (wrong) way but they flipped the switch like we did. ... I think they were playing with more confidence (tonight), obviously. The day we beat them they were still a little bit down."

Fichera plays the hero

Fichera, a 5-foot-6 junior wing, netted the winner early in the third period, finishing off a great passing sequence on the break. Laz Giardina, a 6-foot-5 junior, carried the puck down the right wing, gave a drop pass to center Mark Boyle and headed to the net. Boyle made a cross-crease pass to Fichera, who was all alone for a vicious one-timer that flew past Braintree goalie Ryan Cochrane.

It was only Fichera's third goal of the season.

"Beautiful pass by Boyle," Fichera said. "Great goal."

Said Doherty: "Real nice (sequence). Mark just made a great pass. From our bench there was really nothing their goalie could do."

Reading goalie Chris Hanifan had a busy third period as Braintree applied strong pressure, but the Rockets did not wilt, disappointing the Braintree portion of the boisterous sellout crowd of 1,200.

"We knew coming into this environment that it was going to be a difficult event, to say the least," Doherty said. "But again, we persevered. We do have a lot of seniors. It does help when you go to difficult environments. Just thrilled for the kids."

Fasano was sad to see the season end but said it was "very important" that Braintree had shrugged off those big graduation losses to again stamp itself as a program to be reckoned with in Division 1.

"We have a lot of good underclassmen so we expect (to not dip down)," he said. "You've seen in the past 10-15 years, we don't seem to rebuild; we just re-tool and we're back in it. And we expect to be back here again next year. I don't think you're going to get a much better atmosphere than you've seen here tonight and even against Weymouth last week when it was sold out (for the Wamps' 1-0 win in the Round of 32). So hockey is alive and well (here). It's just a matter of us trying to get to that next level."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Braintree boys hockey falls to Reading in Div. 1 quarterfinals