100-Game Winning Streak Ends

That sound you heard crashing down toward the South Shore Thursday night was an explosion of joy – and relief – from the Hingham High girls hockey team.

You’re allowed to be loud when you finally move an immovable object.

Three years after the girls won a Division 2 state championship and less than a year since the boys program scaled the Super Eight mountain for the very first time, town puck-lovers have a new magical moment to celebrate.

Winning a Div. 1 state quarterfinal in overtime would have been thrilling enough. To do it against three-time defending state champ St. Mary’s (Lynn) – while ending the Lady Spartans’ unthinkable 100-game unbeaten streak (96-0-4) – made it indescribably better for the Harborwomen.

So they mobbed sophomore Jane Freda on the ice, backslapped senior goaltender Beth Findley for a dazzling, save-the-season save, and nearly squeezed the life out of each other with hugs heading into the locker room. When the door finally swung open, the pack of family and friends waiting to greet their heroes could have been knocked off their feet by the deafening roar that emerged from within.

“I don’t even know what to say. I’m in shock now,” Freda said after scoring the tying goal late in the third period and the winner just 45 seconds into OT to cap a slay-the-dragon 3-2 comeback win. “This is a dream.”

No, it’s reality – one the Harborwomen had been building toward for some time. Hingham had been 0-7 against St. Mary’s during the Lady Spartans’ streak, but most of the games – including last year’s 4-3 loss in the Div. 1 state semis – had been a battle of equals.

After knocking on the door for three years, Hingham finally kicked it in.

“That feat will never be done again,” Hingham coach Tom Findley said of St. Mary’s unbeaten run, which commenced after a 3-2 shootout loss to Austin Prep in the 2007 state semis. “I knew we had the team (to do it). The kids were prepared. They played great the last six games.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of our team. We (model) or program after St. Mary’s. (Coach) Frank (Pagliuca), his professionalism is top-notch. I can’t believe I’m standing here (talking about beating them).”

St. Mary’s was, understandably, devastated, but Pagliuca was gracious in defeat.

“A lot of the games we’ve played with (Hingham) have been coin-flip type games,” he pointed out. “A bounce here, a bounce there. Against a team like that, no shame (in losing).

“They run a class program. They show very good sportsmanship, from the coaching staff to the players. Good luck to Hingham. I hope they do well (in the rest of the tournament).”

No. 8 Hingham (18-4-2) will be back here for Sunday’s 5 p.m. semifinals, playing No. 5 Winthrop/Lynn (17-3-1) for a spot in the March 20 title game at the Garden.

“It’s going to be tough for us coming off such a high,” Tom Findley said. “I don’t know know how I’m going to get them off the cloud.”

Still, he has two days to worry about that. Thursday night was all about living in the glorious moment.

Of course, it almost all went up in smoke in a disastrous third period.

Hingham had badly outplayed the champs over the first 30 minutes, holding a 10-8 edge in shots and grabbing a 1-0 lead on Sarah Schwenzfeier’s power-play goal 57 seconds into the second period.

St. Mary’s (20-1-3) roared to the life in the third, however, as Bridget Donovan and Hannah Quin scored goals 34 seconds apart, the latter with only 6:26 remaining.

Freda answered quickly with the equalizer off a goalmouth scramble with 5:36 left, and Beth Findley stole the show in the final minute of regulation, turning aside Gina Beth Manganiello’s shot at the right post and then sliding back to the left to deny her again on a follow-up wraparound.

“I’ve been working on that a lot in practice,” Beth Findley said, “because last year Sabrina Iannetti (of St. Mary’s) scored on me on a wraparound. I really wanted that one back, so I’ve been working really hard on that – to get over fast.

“I owe a lot to my defenseman, Catherine Chittick. She really helped me out a lot there. I don’t even know if I got it or she got it. But it (didn’t go in); that’s all that matters.”

Come overtime, it was time for Freda to go to work again. Moved up to forward from defense late in the season, she got her ninth goal when she chipped a puck out of her zone, sped down the left wing and saw her shot squirt through goaltender Sarah Foss, who slumped face-first to the ice as the Harborwomen dog-piled on Freda.

On every other night over the past three years, it was always the Lady Spartans who found a way to make the biggest play at the biggest moment.

“Not tonight,” Beth Findley said. “I’d say the hockey gods were on our side.”

“I still can’t wrap my head around it,” Freda added. “It’s so awesome that we were the ones who beat them and no one else. After 100 games, we were the ones who beat them.”