He’s a senior, but this season is Maxwell McArthur’s first season on the Fed team at St. Joe’s. And tonight, in his first game, he made it one to remember with a hat trick en route to a 5-2 Marauders win.
But St. Joe’s got off to a slow start in the season opener against Lancaster, as the Legends scored two goals less than two minutes apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.
“We just wanted to make it exciting for all the fans,” St. Joe’s coach Rich Crozier joked. “Nerves, I don’t know. We didn’t look too good there, we were a little sloppy, and number of things. First game jitters.”
Whatever caused it, Crozier knew it had to be fixed. He called a timeout with 6:43 remaining in the first period, and what he said to his players during that timeout lit a fire under them.
“After those first two goals, Coach called a timeout,” McArthur said. “He really focused us in and was like, ‘Come on guys, you gotta wake up. It’s time.’ So that was really a huge timeout for us, and it really made us bounce back.”
The results on the scoreboard weren’t immediate, but Crozier liked what he saw right away as the Marauders played to their strengths.
“Once we got our feet under us, we started skating, moving our feet, and getting to loose pucks in front of their net,” Crozier said. “I thought that was the difference in the game today — that’s one of the things we try to take advantage of, is we got some players that can move their feet. We got some good skaters. Nothing against Lancaster, they were scrappy, they gave us a great game, but we’re a good skating team and when we’re moving our feet, that’s when we’re at our best.”
But St. Joe’s finished the first period still down by two, and it stayed that way over halfway into the second period as well.
Enter Max McArthur. Finally.
“Max is one of those kids who’s stuck with the program,” Crozier explained. “I think he was one of the last cuts as a sophomore, one of the last cuts as a junior … That’s a tough assignment for a junior to swallow.”
But McArthur never gave up, and Crozier admires the type of player and person McArthur is.
“He’s a great kid,” Crozier said. “He just was named to the All-Academic Scholar team, and that’s the type of player we want — a senior that sticks with the program and is great in school. So I’m thrilled for him. That’s a great accomplishment as a senior, not only to make the team, but in your first Fed game, to score a hat trick. I’m sure his family’s excited.”
“We got that first goal and that really changed the entire game for us,” forward Trevor Conschafter said. “And we knew that if we got that first goal — everything was going right before that, we just couldn’t bury them — so we knew that we could continue to keep on working and the game would come.”
It was Conschafter who tied the game less than two and a half minutes later, and he assisted the go-ahead goal scored by Nash Braun early in the third.
“I actually missed on the opening shot,” Conschafter said. “The defenseman blocked it, but I got the rebound and I was happy to score and help my team. And then it was a good forecheck by my linemates, Jeremy Ienco and Nash Braun, and they dumped it in and Nash finished for the goal, so it worked out good.”
McArthur scored twice more to complete his hat trick and add a couple insurance goals, but he gave all the credit to his linemates.
“Thank you to my line for setting me up because it was really mostly them, but that was pretty awesome,” he said.
And although he was excited about scoring a hat trick in his first game, he tried to keep it in perspective. His hope is that there’s more to come.
“Pretty awesome,” McArthur said. “I can’t complain at all, but I mean I just gotta keep it going, can’t get too high on this game. Just gotta keep it going into the regular season.”
Crozier didn’t want to dwell too much on tonight’s game either, but after a long offseason, it certainly felt good to get a win so quickly.
“We’re not dwelling on it, but we certainly know that last time we were in that locker room, it was disappointment,” Crozier said. “And it’s been a long offseason working incredibly hard to get back to this point with some new faces, and I’m glad we were able to turn it around. It would have been another tough one to swallow, probably not as tough as in late February last year, but you don’t necessarily want to lose your opener, so nice response by the boys.”
“Huge first win, obviously, but it’s even bigger that we’re going into our game Thursday,” said McArthur. “So I’m really looking forward to that.”
“It feels real good,” Conschafter said. “We gotta continue to play better as we play more teams and just continue to get better throughout the season.”
St. Joe’s is scheduled to play Niagara Wheatfield Thursday night at 9 pm at Northtown Center for the Falcons’ first game of the year.