Goal in final seconds lifts North Quincy boys hockey past Quincy in tournament opener

QUINCY — North Quincy High boys hockey fans got an extra holiday gift Tuesday night after senior David D'Antona scored in the closing seconds to beat city rival Quincy, 3-2.

It was a packed house for the first round of the Quincy Youth Arena Holiday Tournament. Every goal caused an uproar, and every no-call was scrutinized. That type of atmosphere deserved a thrilling finish, and D'Antona obliged.

“Soon as I scored, I saw it go into the net, I was just shocked and jumped on the (dasher) board immediately," D'Antona said. "It was just crazy."

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Coming out of a Quincy timeout, the winning sequence began when Raiders forward Vinny O’Leary received a pass from Noah Kearney before being hit by a Presidents defender. The puck landed on D’Antona’s stick, and he was able to finish on a wrister between the circles with 2.9 seconds left. It was his second goal of the game.

“We drew up a play to go to David to score, but it wasn’t that,” NQ coach Matt Gibbons said. “But we said, ‘Hey let’s bury this goal, celebrate in the stands,' and there’s no better way to win than that.”

Both teams are 1-3. North Quincy had struggled out of the gate this season, losing to Essex Tech, Hanover and Scituate while being outscored 18-2.

"We talk about process all the time,” said Gibbons, whose team will face King Philip in Thursday's final. “You look at our scores and think, ‘Ah, gee, they must be having a down year,' but we've been in it. We've been fighting and crawling, we've been putting it together, especially (tonight) with David putting in two goals.”

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D’Antona's first goal came 43 seconds into the second period. Senior captain James Rogers skated down the ice and shot a missile, which was deflected. D’Antona was there for clean-up and a 1-0 Raiders lead.

O'Leary made it 2-0 with 8:57 left in the second period when he skated past two Quincy defenders and shot a dagger that deflected in off the left post.

Quincy eventually rallied to tie it. First, senior defenseman Sam Civiello set up classmate Will Martin, who beat NQ goalie Aidan McGuinness over his right shoulder to cut the Raiders' lead in half with 4:14 left in the second period. It was Martin's sixth goal of the season.

“I mean, Will Martin is special,” said Gibbons. “He got that first goal, such a nice goal, and he was all over the ice. His compete level is just ridiculous. They've got good players, but we knew Will was the guy and we tried to keep him in our back pocket. (But) we gave him three breakaways in the first period.”

Quincy’s tying goal came on a power play with 3:41 left in the third period when senior Colin Gates converted from a sharp angle.

The Raiders didn't hang their heads after blowing the lead.

“I was just like, 'We’re going to OT for sure,' and (figured) we had to stick it out until OT,” Rogers said. “We kept it up. We made mistakes but kept bouncing back all through the game. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes we have.”

Gibbons hopes this W bleeds over into the rest of the tournament and the rest of the season. And, of course, the victory comes with its own bragging rights.

“This game is always fun and special because of the atmosphere,” Gibbons said. “I was talking to the kids before this, saying, ‘We need to just get a win,’ and there’s no better win than tonight. Hopefully it’s a jumping-off point for us.”

Quincy will try to regroup against Milton in Thursday's consolation game. The Presidents showed a fight-back mentality in the comeback. However, their efforts came up short and it’s back to the drawing board.

“The talk before the game with the team is always (about) no matter who is better than who, in the Quincy-North Quincy game nine out of 10 times it always comes down to who works the hardest, and they worked harder than we did tonight,” Quincy coach Ted Walsh Sr. said. “We have a lot of work to do because the effort just wasn’t good enough."

North Quincy will try to keep the new-found momentum going against King Philip (3-1), which topped Milton, 3-1, in the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader. Owen McHugh had the lone goal for the Wildcats (2-2).

“We play a good King Philip team and then we have a week off," Gibbons said, "so we knew this was a big one for us. And there's nothing better than winning a game like this.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: North Quincy boys hockey scores with 2.9 seconds left to beat Quincy