It takes a village to win any game in the New England prep school hockey landscape, let alone the four that it takes to claim the coveted Flood-Marr Tournament crown.
Brian Day's club at Noble and Greenough proved that over the weekend, capping off the 56th installment of the annual holiday tournament with a 2-1 victory over Milton Academy on Sunday.
Freshman goaltender Thatcher Bernstein (Brookline, Mass.) backstopped the team in net, while a game-winning snipe off the stick of senior captain Roman Tacelli (Needham, Mass.) solidified the win late in regulation, earning the Bulldogs their fourth Flood-Marr championship in the tournament's 40-year history.
“I thought we played a real good, team-oriented game,” Day said. “We weren’t overly reliant on one or two guys, a lot of people contributed on the stat sheet and a lot of people contributed that didn’t get on the stat sheets. It was just a good team victory for us throughout all four games.”
Bernstein, an '06 who was named the tournament MVP, picked up three wins on the weekend -- sophomore Tyler Bloomfield (Hudson, Mass.) recorded the other -- and allowed just three goals in front of a strong defensive unit, as Nobles (co-host) knocked off Deerfield, Salisbury and Andover en route to the final.
Milton, the other co-host of the tournament, tied Kimball Union and beat Westminster and Hotchkiss to secure its spot in the final, featuring an ISL matchup of Keller Division foes at the Mustangs' home rink.
Junior forward Ben MacDonald (Weston, Mass.) started the scoring for Nobles, notching a power-play marker on a feed from Austin Tasca (Hope, R.I.) and Aidan Lyons (Brookline, Mass.) to put the Bulldogs ahead 1-0 midway through the middle frame.
Milton tied it a few minutes later on a second-period goal from junior Mikka Kelechian before Tacelli finished a no-angle bid on the goal line, assisted by MacDonald, with time winding down in the final frame.
Rome’s clutch goal: https://t.co/G4uFKeNtK8 pic.twitter.com/6j7yvlbJjF
— Nobles Boys Hockey (@nobleshockey) December 19, 2021
The combined four goals that Nobles allowed on the weekend are a testament to not only Thatcher's emergent play between the pipes but the entire team's defense-first mindset, Day said.
“Obviously, goaltending is critical. (Thatcher) is very calm, very poised and he’s always making the first save, but that’s just the starting point for us. We’ve got a really good ‘D’ core in front of him, we don’t give up a lot," Day said.
“Our forward group is very responsible, as well. It takes six guys to play good team defense and almost always we have all six guys doing a really good job. When we don’t, it’s nice knowing that Thatcher is back there to make a key save for us.”
Perhaps most critical in the Bulldogs’ championship effort was their special teams' play. The penalty-killing unit didn’t allow a single goal the whole tournament, while five of the team’s last seven goals were scored on the power play.
The team also benefitted from the energy it received from its fourth line, which gave the rest of the group a lift and allowed the veterans to keep some in the tank for when they were needed most.
“That doesn’t show up on the scoresheet but those guys were all huge in what we were trying to do,” Day said.
Sitting at 7-0-1 at the end of the first month with wins over Dexter, Salisbury, and a tie with Belmont Hill, Nobles is firing on all cylinders heading into the school's 12-day holiday break.
"It’s a great accomplishment, this is a hard tournament,” Day said. “You look at who’s in it and there are so many great teams. You have to be at your best every game or you’re not going to win it. You have got to show up and I thought we did a great job of being in the moment throughout the course of each game.
"In all four games, our third periods were our best periods, which I think speaks to guys sticking to the process and staying in the moment, not letting the moment get too big for them.”
Nobles returns to action on Dec. 31 with a 1:15 p.m. matchup against Williston Northhampton at the New Years Showcase.
Other Flood-Marr notes:
Kimball Union won the third-place game with a 3-2 win over Salisbury. Revy Mack scored the game-winner with 13 seconds left after the Wildcats erased a 2-0 deficit on goals from Matthew Maltais and Jaiden Moriello (Saugus, Mass.).
Westminster won the fifth-place game with a 3-0 defeat of Andover, while Hotchkiss won the seventh-place matchup with a 3-0 victory over Deerfield.
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liam.flaherty@hockeyjournal.com
