MARLBOROUGH — The road to the Garden began at New England Sports Center on Wednesday.
Playing in back-to-back MIAA tournament games at the largest ice sports venue in New England, the Nashoba and St. John’s boys’ hockey teams made the first step in their quests to earn a spot in a state championship game at TD Garden next month.
No. 11 Nashoba defeated No. 22 Longmeadow, 5-1, in a Division 3 Round of 32 game before eighth-seeded St. John’s beat No. 25 Acton-Boxborough, 2-1 in double overtime, in a Division 1 Round of 32 contest. Both tournament tussles took place in the span of four hours inside Rink 1 in Marlborough.
“Road to the Garden,” Nashoba senior captain Nathaniel Carter said.
Nashoba (14-5-2) last played at the home of the Boston Bruins in 2023, when the Wolves won a D3 state title. St. John’s (12-8-1) made a trip to TD Garden last winter, when it lost to Catholic Memorial in the D1 state final.
Fast forward to Feb. 25, and both local teams inched closer to capping their collective seasons in Boston.
“It’s just that hope (of returning to TD Garden) that’s keeping us going here,” St. John’s senior captain Conor Secrist said. “That’s what my mind goes to, getting back there and that feeling last year.”
Before their two hockey teams played back-to-back high school playoff games Wednesday, Nathaniel Carter and Conor Secrist already knew each other.
The two grew up playing club hockey with one another and even played for the same club baseball team last summer.
“It’s awesome to keep seeing each other around our home rink and being able to catch up real quick every once in a while,” Carter said. “He’s a great guy who’s always been supportive and a good leader.”
“It’s pretty cool for Nathaniel and I to be playing back-to-back games in the playoffs as seniors because I met him before high school and we’ve been on the same hockey team before and spent all last summer together traveling and playing baseball together, too,” Secrist said pregame. “So it’ll be fun to watch him play before us as we prepare for our game and, hopefully, he can start a deep run in the playoffs with Nashoba.”
Trailing 1-0 to Acton-Boxborough with less than four minutes to play in regulation on Wednesday night, the Pioneers’ hopes for a deep playoff run looked to be over before they even started.
But with a timely rebound and put-back goal from sophomore Nico Santella with 3:21 left in the third period, St. John’s came back to life.
“He’s done it before,” St. John’s senior captain Brady Chenevert said, “and I had all the confidence (in him).”
“Kids a good player, what can I say?” St. John’s senior captain Ashton Smith said.
Following a scoreless four-on-four overtime period, both teams saw their squads whittle down to three skaters apiece (and a goalie) for double overtime.
That’s when Santella provided the cherry on top for the Pioneers.
After collecting another rebound off a shot from a teammate, Santella skated wide for just a second before lifting the puck over the outstretched arms of the A-B goalie and into the back of the net for the game-winning goal.
Ballgame. St. John’s will play either No. 9 BC High or No. 24 Malden Catholic back in Marlborough on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“Huge for the program and huge for the school,” said Santella, who is from Worcester and didn’t play on the St. John’s varsity team last year as a freshman.
“Nico has had some very big goals for us, and this just adds to his legacy,” St. John’s coach Michael Mead said.
Following a parade of high fives from St. John’s students in the hallway of NESC, Mead delivered a short and sweet speech to his skaters in their locker room.
“We get to practice tomorrow,” Mead said.
The best five words any team can hear from their coach in the playoffs.
“That’s our goal,” Mead said. “To always keep practicing until we can’t, until the day after the state finals and people are getting ready for baseball, lacrosse and tennis, that’s when we want to keep practicing until.”
“We get to keep it moving, so that’s a fun part,” Smith said. “We’re fighting for another Garden appearance right now but (we) got to take it game by game.”
In its game against Longmeadow on Wednesday, Nashoba didn’t start off too hot, either.
The Wolves picked up two penalties in the first five minutes, but killed them off, and then finally capitalized on a power play of their own a little later on. With 2:34 left in the first period, junior captain Max Furcillo wristed a lefty shot (from the right faceoff circle) into the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.
“We needed that,” Furcillo said. “It lit a fire under us.”
Then, with time winding down in the period, Nashoba senior captain Christian Matranga slid a no-look pass toward teammate Cam Rouillard, who snuck the puck into the back of the net as time expired to give his team a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
“You couldn’t ask for a better pass from him,” Rouillard said. “It felt great.”
From there, it was smooth sailing for the Wolves. Goals from Carter (2 goals) and Rouillard (2 goals) gave Nashoba a 4-0 lead after two periods before Carter capped his team’s scoring with a goal in the third. Nashoba will play either No. 6 Dracut or No. 27 Norton in the next round of playoffs, with the place and time still to be determined.
After playing varsity as a freshman (along with Ryan Balewicz) for a Wolves team that made a run to TD Garden in 2023, Carter is hoping to cap his final high school season in similar fashion.
“Dominant win at home to start playoffs really builds confidence, really builds morale,” Carter said. “We may not be the highest seed, but we weren’t my freshman year either and we made that run, so, I think that just proves we have what it takes. …
“First step towards the run but (the) job’s not finished.”
Still, the road to the Garden got a little shorter on Wednesday for both Nashoba and St. John’s hockey.
“We all know we have a really good group here,” Matranga said. “We have a good feeling we can go back again this year.”
Said St. John’s senior captain Ashton Smith: “It means the world to this team.”
“We’re just ready to get to the Garden,” Rouillard concluded.
—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.
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