MIDDLETON — Jack Doherty does not spend much time deep in the offensive zone. The St. John’s Prep defenseman picks his spots carefully when he joins the rush and rarely ventures much past the blue line.
But extenuating circumstances call for extreme measures.
Late in overtime Saturday afternoon at the Essex Sports Center, Doherty was the trailer on a 3-on-2 rush with fellow captains Jake Vana and Christian Rosa. He took the initiative to drive the net, took a feed from Vana and slammed the puck into the St. John’s Shrewsbury cage with just 21.5 seconds remaining, giving the Eagles a dramatic 4-3 victory on Senior Day.
“We had to get the win, so I knew I had to get up there in the O-zone,” said the 18-year-old Doherty, who calls Marblehead home. “Jake yelled at me ‘Go go go!’, so I did and went middle lane drive. He gets the puck (from Rosa) and gave it to me on a silver platter.”
It was the 48th and final shot of the contest for the top ranked Eagles (now 16-3 overall), who finished atop the Catholic Conference with a 9-1 record, their best mark since the 2013 campaign.
“Ultimately, you count on your guys to win games. And by ‘your guys’ I mean your seniors, your captains,” said head coach Kristian Hanson. “Jake Vana said on the bench late in OT, ‘Get me the puck; we’re going to win this game’ and that’s exactly what happened.”
Vana, who finished with a goal and two assists, recalled how a similar scenario played out last month when the two teams met in Shrewsbury, but on that occasion his pass to Doherty was a bit too hard to bury.
“It’s crazy how sports comes full circle like that,” the right wing from Boxford said. “This one was a bang-bang play, where Johnny (Tighe, the team’s fourth captain) got a 1-on-1 stop against their guy, we get possession and Rosa brought the puck up. I saw Doherty coming — we work on those 3-on-2’s all the time in practice, but he’s usually defending them, not trying to convert — so I yelled at him to go to the net. Rosa makes a great pass to me and I was going to shoot, but I saw Doherty wide open and sent it over. He made no mistake.”
“It means a lot to do it in from of my parents and family for all the sacrifices they’ve made for me,” added Doherty, who was joined Saturday by his parents, Amy and JJ (a former Swampscott High goalie), brothers Ryan and John, grandmother Nancy Doherty, and aunt Maura Doherty.
St. John’s Shrewsbury (10-8-1), ranked No. 13 in the latest state power poll, rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 by scoring three times in the middle period, twice on the power play. Captain Luke Gerardi had all three tallies, including one with under two minutes left until the second intermission.
“We were frustrated by our play in that second period,” admitted Hanson. “Gerardi’s a dangerous player; he’s a flank guy on their power play and really hurt us. But I was proud that we responded in the third period by playing cleaner with no penalties while generating some really good scoring chances of our own.”
Earlier, the Eagles had gone up 2-0 after 17 minutes on goals by Tighe and, on the power play, Vana.
Sophomore Ethan Goodrich’s second goal of the season, where he picked up Doherty’ slapper off the back wall and fired it home short side, gave St. John’s Prep a 3-2 lead midway through the second period before Gerardi’s hat trick lamplighter tied it again.
“I’m proud of the boys for sticking with it today and finishing the league schedule with a nice really win on Senior Day. Their last regular season home game wound up being pretty memorable,” said Hanson, whose team ends the regular season at Franklin Wednesday before beginning the Division 1 playoffs at home the following week, likely on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
St. John’s Prep 4, St. John’s Shrewsbury 3 (OT)
St. John’s Shrewsbury;0;3;0;0;3
St. John’s Prep;2;1;0;1;4
First period: SJP, Johnny Tighe (Jake Vana, Christian Rosa), 4:14; SJP, Vana (Mason Luciano, Rosa), 14:37.
Second period: SJS, Luke Gerardi (Anthony Desimone, Daniel Menyalkin), ppg, :30; SJS, Gerardi (Desimone, Menyalkin), ppg, 3:51; SJP, Ethan Goodrich (Jack Doherty), 8:40; SJS, Gerardi (Menyalkin), 15:08.
Third period: No scoring.
Overtime; SJP, Doherty (Vana, Rosa), 4:39.
Saves: SJS, Dante Sousa 44; SJP, AJ Farese 21.
Records: SJP, 16-3; SJS, 10-8-1.