Whether or not the Plymouth North hockey team would have been able to beat Blue Hills will always be up for debate. But the Blue Eagles were no match for the deadly combination of Mother Nature and Father Time.

With a record of 6-7-6, the Eagles had a chance to make their first tournament appearance in several years if they could have pulled out a win last Friday night against Blue Hills in the Canton tournament. Several inches of snow got it the way, though, and the game was cancelled.

The usual answer would be to make up the game at a later date, but this situation was special; the tournament pairings were scheduled to be released by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). Without a win over Blue Hills, North was left to wait another season for its tournament invitation.

“We tried to work it out just about any way we could, but nothing could be done after Blue Hills called to cancel the game Friday afternoon,” Eagle Coach John Greene said. “The kids were ready to make the trip to Canton, but there was no way they were going to play Friday, and we couldn’t get the approval to play the game on Saturday morning before the MIAA members met to put together the brackets for the tournament.”

Greene said the way his players reacted to the news was not unexpected.

“We were all at Armstrong ready to go play the game, and it was like a funeral when the kids found out it was not going to happen,” Greene said. “They’d come so far this season, and they were ready to make a run at the playoffs. They’re a close group and I don’t think any of them wanted to see the season come to an end.”

That left them with a tall hill to climb at the Canton end-of-the-year tournament. They drew a formidable foe in the first round, taking the ice against the defending Division 2 state champion Hanover High squad.

Hanover got an early 2-0 lead, but the Eagles fought back to tie the game and battle for the lead in the final few minutes of the game.

“It was a physical game and the kids more than held their own against a very good hockey team,” Greene said. “We caught a spark after we got down 2-0 and had some very good scoring chances late in the game.”

Hanover would eventually win the game in overtime, but the key point was that since the MIAA doesn’t recognize overtime during the regular season, the game went into the books as a tie for the Blue Eagles. Now just two points short of a tournament berth, the Eagles would never get the chance to earn the points.

The Eagles kept their slim playoff hopes alive Wednesday night by having five different goal-scorers find the back of the net in a 5-1 win over Plymouth South. The win was the first time in seven years that the Eagles beat their cross-town rival.

“It was good to finally get a win over Plymouth South. Both teams played hard as you would expect in a rivalry game like this one,” Plymouth North Head Coach John Greene said. “It was a typical North vs. South game, where both teams had some chances, but I think we were able to get the puck to bounce our way a little more than they did.”

Plymouth North came out of the game sporting a record of 6-7-5, poised to qualify for the tournament for the first time in several years if the team pulled at least a win and a tie out of games with Hanover (Thursday) and the winner of North Quincy vs. Blue Hills yesterday (Friday) to end the regular season. They held Hanover to a 2-2 tie Thursday night, bringing everything down to the final game of the season last night (weather permitting) against North Quincy or Blue Hills.

The Eagles have seen both teams this season. They tied and then lost to North Quincy in a pair of games earlier this month. They squared off with Blue Hills before the season in a scrimmage.

Wednesday night’s contest was the sixth time Justin Steeves had gone between the pipes to face the Panthers. The first five times the Plymouth North senior captain had to settle for a tie at best, but he saved his best effort for last.

Steeves was especially good early in the game, kicking aside some solid scoring chances as his teammates got their game in gear.

“I’ve been waiting for this for so long. We were real close to beating them a couple of times in the last three years, but to finally get the win feels awesome,” Steeves said Wednesday. “The games are always intense against Plymouth South, and the entire team came together to finally get the win.

“This has been an unbelievable season, and I don’t want to see it come to an end. We’ve put our hearts into every game this season and we are really close to making the tournament. We’ve got two games left, and we have to find a way to get three points out of them.”

After sustaining an early Panther flurry, Plymouth North got on the scoreboard just over three minutes into the game when leading scorer Michael Whouley stole the puck out of the skates of a Plymouth South defender and swooped in on netminder Dan Whelan for the goal.

Six minutes later a team effort put North on top 2-0. Junior forward Tom MacInnes rushed the puck up the ice to get the play started. He got the puck to David McGrath, who had a whack at it, but it was senior Captain Steve Wight who found the back of the net to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left in the period.

MacInnes struck again with 40 seconds left in the period, firing a bullet pass from inside the blue line across the ice to Emmett Cosgrove at the side of the net for a score that made it a 3-0 game.

 Down, but by no means out, Plymouth South roared back down the ice and got on the scoreboard when freshman Kevin Salvucci’s backhander got behind Steeves as time ran out in the period.

Tim Lawrence scored from Whouley to make it 4-1 in the middle period, and MacInnes added a goal to go with his two assists with 6:55 left to play to make the final score 5-1.

“For sure the better team won the hockey game tonight. Both teams had some great shots on net and chances to score, but they were more physical and beat us to more loose pucks,” Plymouth South Head Coach Mike McCosh said. “Justin Steeves came up big, which is of no surprise to me after watching him play for the last three years. Both goalies played a solid game, but this was Plymouth North’s night. They deserved the win.”

The loss ended what turned out to be a learning season for the Panthers. They’ll come away from the year with wins over Denis-Yarmouth and North Reading as a well as couple of ties, but McCosh sees some better times right around the corner with his young squad.

“We started to turn things around and play better hockey at the end of the season. We’re young and we learned a lot of lessons this season,” the coach said.

Greene believes the Panthers will be back in the tournament hunt sooner rather than later.

“Plymouth South battled and gave it everything they had. It was an outstanding hockey game,” Greene said. “Their record does not really indicate the amount of talent on that team. We knew we’d have to battle all 45 minutes to come out of here with the win.”

and nothing to keep them warm during the bitter winter nights. When rooms and space open up at shelters, they almost immediately fill up, especially in Boston, where the homeless rate stands at more than 6,000 people.

When homeless individuals enter shelters, many lack adequate clothing to protect them from the elements. The St. Francis House on Boylston St. in Boston does its part to help. It supplies clothing through its Fresh Threads clothing distribution program. St. Francis House can’t do this alone. It relies on donations. Recently, the Plymouth North ice hockey team scored with a huge donation.

Over a three-week span late last year, the Eagles collected roughly 170 jackets, as well as shoes, socks, hats, and gloves. According to Plymouth North hockey coach John Greene, WearGuard contributed jackets. The team also collected jackets from private donations, including themselves, family, and friends. 

“We wanted to try as a team to get in one community service project once a month,” Greene said. “(Forward) Dave McGrath’s father had contacts in Boston through L Street in Southie. This was one we could handle as a whole team. I wanted to get all the kids in and see the struggles that go on in the city.”

On a cold, winter morning in December, Greene and the Eagles headed to St. Francis with a dozen or so bags of clothing. When they entered St. Francis, many of the players saw a whole new world. Senior tri-captain and forward Steve Wight said that reality hit him as soon as he walked in.

“You saw a lot of people who were a lot less fortunate than you,” Wight said. “It was tough seeing those people there. You’ve got to appreciate what you’ve got, and you can’t take anything for granted. I’ve been to the city before, but I didn’t know there were people just sitting outside with nowhere to go.”

Greene said the experience had a lasting effect on his players.

“It definitely was an eye-opener,” Greene said. “One of the questions that was posed to the lady who was talking to us at the St. Francis House was do they have kids there who are their age. She said yes. A lot of it’s because they drop out of school, or it’s from drugs or alcohol. Basically, they don’t have a support group. We talked to the kids about getting an education and how they have parents who love them and how they have a home.”

After the team returned home from witnessing the harsh reality of the homeless crisis that faces not only Boston, they felt proud of giving back to the community.

 “It was great. I think the kids could see that the clothes were put to good use,” Greene said. “It brings the kids closer. It gave them a chance to have the same experience of seeing the homeless as a team. They have a feeling of giving as a group. And as a group, it just bonds them.”

The team will continue to give back, Greene said. On Feb. 10, Greene said that the team will head to St. Peters Food Pantry in Cambridge, which serves meals to the homeless. The Eagles will clean and scrub down the food pantry, Greene said. Also this season, the team will work with a shelter in Kingston.

A bad four minutes against Marshfield and a late goal by Quincy are the only things keeping the Plymouth North hockey team’s first quarter of the season from being classified as a good to a great one.

The Eagles are 1-2-3 after holding a talented Silver Lake squad to a 3-3 tie Wednesday night at the Hobomock Arena in Pembroke. North led most of the way on the strength of a pair of goals by Tom MacInnes and one from Michael Whouley, but Silver Lake scored in the final minutes of the second and third periods to knot the game.

The game was a complete reversal of Saturday night’s game on Cape Cod with Sandwich where the Eagles were down 3-1 early in the game but battled back to forge a tie and take a point from the contest.

“We’ve played well in all of the games, but we’re still doing some little things that make it harder for us to win,” first-year head coach John Greene said. “We’ve been playing against some pretty tough teams and we’ve been holding our own. We just need to tighten things up a little bit more a play a compete hockey game instead of having those isolated breakdowns at a key time that have been coming back to hurt us.

“I think we are on the road to where we want to be. Our goal is to get better with every game and at every step there has been improvement so far. The biggest thing for the kids right now is to have fun and not to be afraid to make a mistake.”

The mistakes were few and far between for North senior goaltender Justin Steeves early in Wednesday’s contest with Silver Lake. The senior made several sparkling stops in the opening period, keeping the Lakers at bay after MacInnes’ goal one minute into the game gave Plymouth North an early 1-0 lead.

Steeves turned aside 13 Silver Lake shots in the first period to keep it a 1-0 game. His streak of good luck stopped with a little over four minutes game in the second period on a two-on-one break when Craig McKinnon slid the puck across the ice to Doug Dromey who deposited it into the open side of the net to tie the game, 1-1.

North took back the lead on the power play with 6:08 left in the middle frame. The play started when Silver Lake missed a solid scoring chance down in Plymouth North end of the ice and the Eagles quickly worked the puck out of their zone. Tim Lawrence got the pass to MacInnes, who put a laser of a wrist shot over the right shoulder of Silver Lake netminder Dan Brady for the 2-1 lead.

The Eagles feathered their nest a little bit more with less than three minutes to go in the period, taking a 3-1 lead when Whouley stole a loose puck neat the blue line, shook himself loose of some defenders and roofed a wrister to beat Brady and give his team a 3-1 lead.

Silver Lake’s comeback started before the end of the period when Jake Menton’s unassisted goal cut the lead down to 3-2. The Lakers tied it up on a two-on-one break with 1:53 left to play when McKinnon used Chris Lyons in front of the net as a decoy and fired a shot that beat Steeves just inside the short side post.