Marblehead honors hockey team’s heroics

MARBLEHEAD – On Jan. 28, the Marblehead boys hockey team was blanked, 5-0, at East Boston to fall to 6-9 for the season with just five games left on the schedule.But what happened to the Headers over the next two months can be simply described as amazing.Marblehead would rattle off four straight wins to clinch a tournament berth, from which magic happened.The Headers bested arch-rival Swampscott in overtime in the opening round and then knocked off Latin Academy in a shootout before posting back-to-back 1-0 wins over No. 1 Trinity Catholic and No. 2 Concord-Carlisle to win the program’s first sectional title.And while the Headers’ season came to an end in the Eastern Mass. finals against Scituate, there was still a lot to be celebrated on Thursday night at the Gerry 5 as the team held its awards banquet.”To win the title with as many young kids as we had was simply unbelievable,” Marblehead coach Bob Jackson said. “It goes to show you how important chemistry is.”To call the Headers young would be quite an understatement, as only two seniors – Jackson Barber and Eric Fader – skated a regular shift for Marblehead all season.And that inexperience showed early on as the Headers started 0-4 and were at 3-5 following an 8-2 bombing at the hands of Peabody when Jackson began to realize changes were needed.”We as coaches made some changes to the defense after the Peabody game and they began to work,” Jackson said.The changes resulted in Marblehead having a 6-7 record before the Big Blue put on a three-period clinic in a 4-0 win on Jan. 26. Two days later came the pasting at the hands of Eastie, resulting in another big change for the team.”After we got smoked by East Boston, the kids realized they had to change and they did,” Jackson said.From that point on, the rest was nearly perfect for the Headers.The awards handed out were led by the team MVP trophy, which went to sophomore defenseman Anders Gundersen. Gundersen was a plus-13 for the season and also received the team’s best defensive player honor.Other players receiving awards were: Jackson Barber, Bud Orne Award; Ellery Smith, Friends of Marblehead Hockey Academic Award; Mike Cohn and Aaron Reny, Coaches Award; Eric Fader, Unsung Hero; Andrew Bates, Top Offensive Player; and Alex Whitmore, Most Improved Player.Alex Whitmore, Hunter Whitmore, Justin Levine, Tony Cuzner, Ryan Dempsey, Chris McLeod, Ben Koopman and Jake Kulevich shared the first-year player award.