Falvey, Hingham hold off Braintree in OT

HINGHAM — As the final seconds bled away Saturday, Hingham’s Bobby Falvey suddenly heard a chorus of voices, all echoing the same plea — for him to take a shot.

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While the angle wasn’t necessarily perfect in the moment, sometimes the best course of action is to simply put the puck on net, and in this instance, Falvey was rewarded for his last-ditch attempt.

The senior defenseman sniped the game-ending goal with 16.5 seconds remaining in overtime, as Hingham delivered head coach Tony Messina his 200th career victory with an epic 5-4 win over Braintree in front of a packed house at Pilgrim Skating Arena.

“I just knew that there were under 20 seconds left and the puck had to go on net,” Falvey said. “I just shot it. I’m just thankful that it found its way into the net.”

This game featured drama from start to finish. Senior left winger Sean Garrity got the scoring started for Hingham (7-3) with 8:35 to play in the first period.

However, Braintree had a quick answer, as junior Kyle Hutchison fired a wrist shot home from the slot 52 seconds later to even the score at 1-1.

With 4:38 to play in the opening stanza, Falvey potted the first of his two goals during a rush, as he tapped in a backhanded shot to put Hingham back in front, 2-1.

But Nicholas Fasano later buried a shot in transition, as Braintree tied the game at 2-2 heading into the second period.

Garrity would tally his second goal with 12:36 to play in the second, while Aidan Brazel knocked in a rebound to make it a 4-2 contest minutes later. At the time, it seemed like Hingham was on the verge of breaking things open.

Yet, whenever it seemed like the Harbormen were taking control, Braintree showed resilience. Tim McLaughlin had a goal late in the second period, before Jack Woods tied the game at 4-all with 6:29 left in regulation.

“We have been in tough games all year,” said Falvey. “That stuff happens. As soon as they scored that fourth goal, we just couldn’t let it affect us. We had to put it behind us, because that’s all we can do. We did that, and then we won the game.”

With time running thin in the extra session, Falvey collected the puck in the faceoff circle by the hash, then uncorked a shot, which slid past the goaltender’s pads and in for the clinching tally.

Falvey also had an assist in the victory, while Brazel tacked on two assists of his own in the effort. Junior center Ace Concannon registered a trio of helpers for the Harbormen.

The win improved Messina’s career record as head coach at Hingham to 20090-38.

The fact that it was his nephew who delivered the heroics in overtime simply made the victory that much more special.

“We knew that they were going to be coming hard, that’s for sure,” Messina said of Braintree. “They’re a great team. They’ve got a lot of fast forwards. You could tell, right off the opening faceoff in the third. They dumped it in, and they started forechecking like crazy. So we told our guys to be ready for it. I think we made some good defensive decisions … it ended up being a great high school hockey game.”

In other action, Max Vieira and Dan Reddick scored the goals for Bishop Fenwick in their 2-1 victory over Catholic Central League foe

Arlington Catholic .…

Jacob Duval notched two scores as Austin Prep doubled up St. Mary’s of Lynn 4-2.

Chase Carney netted a hat trick as Lynnfield rolled past

Pentucket 6-0 in the Cape Ann League.

David Egan tallied a goal and four assists as Essex Tech cruised to an 8-0 victory over Northeast in a Commonwealth Athletic Conference matchup.

Drew Morse, Ryan Teitel and Callum Greenwood all tallied a goal as Hopkinton earned a 3-2 victory over

Dedham in a Tri-Valley League clash.

In nonleague play, Justin Gouveia netted a hat trick as

Bishop Stang (8-0) blanked

Bourne 7-0.

Girls hockey

Itia Figueira scored two goals and added an assist as Melrose topped Medford/ Malden 3-1 in a nonleague contest.

In the Middlesex League, ML Pineros scored twice to lift Woburn over Belmont 4-0.

Kevin Barrucci, Marcello Rossetti, Matt Feld and Brian Roach contributed to this report.