It’s hard to check your phone when you can’t seem to put down the championship trophy, but Boston Latin boys hockey senior Aidan Fitzpatrick didn’t need to check to know how much it was blowing up late Sunday night at TD Garden.
With less than five minutes left in the Div. 2 state final, he and the Cinderella, 11th-seeded Wolfpack scored three unanswered goals to shock the state with a 4-2 upset win over No. 1 Tewksbury. It was a fitting end to a wild day that didn’t see the finale start until after 9:30 p.m., which meant the trophy presentation wouldn’t come until a couple hours later.
The strike of midnight wouldn’t make it disappear, but Fitzpatrick didn’t seem to relinquish the hardware once he got it.
“I’ve been holding it for a while, and it’s just, I’ve loved every minute of it,” he said. “I love these guys. … The relationships that we form is stronger than I think any other team. It’s awesome, I just have tears in my eyes because it means so much to me.”
Earlier in the week, Boston Latin athletic director Jack Owens, head coach Frank Woods and senior captain Bobby Banks spoke on the significance of representing the city of Boston in the school’s first trip to the state final since last winning it in 2005. To put on a run as a heavy underdog to get to TD Garden, as one of the city’s three remaining public school boys hockey programs, was extremely fulfilling.
Though, not as fulfilling as the heroics they delivered in their own backyard in front of a large showing of support.
“We’re only 10 minutes away, this is a home game for us,” Woods said. “We feel like we represent the city when it comes to hockey at the high school level. … There’s a lot of pride that goes along with that. Certainly, we feel that and we had a great crowd (Sunday). The guys fed off of that as well, it was great.”
“It was only our second time winning in the program, so it obviously comes with a lot of pride,” added sophomore Ryan McHugh. “I’m happy to share it with my teammates.”
Tewksbury, which averaged well over five goals per game all year and did so twice against Boston Latin earlier in the season, couldn’t deliver the same scoring punch it usually does through the first two periods. The Wolfpack worked to hold a 2-0 deficit and cut it in half, then let the magic take over.
Junior Billy Cunniffe scored the game-tying goal with 4:55 left, starting a string of three unanswered goals in less than three minutes. Fitzpatrick buried the go-ahead, and senior captain Matt Carrara put the cherry on top with a highlight-reel goal with a defender on him for the 4-2 lead.
“Coming in here as underdogs, we knew we had to play our best game. We stepped it up at the end,” Carrara said. “(We) got the best momentum at the end, a couple quick goals and it just felt great. The (crowd) was going crazy, cheering us, that was good.”