HAPPY ENDING: Hun School boys’ hockey player Blake Brown controls the puck during the Mercer County Tournament championship game last Friday evening. Senior star forward and co-captain Brown had two assists to help seventh-seeded Hun defeat top-seeded Princeton High 4-3 and win their fourth straight county crown. The Raiders finished the season with a final record of 8-16. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

As a special show of unity heading in the Mercer County Tournament, the players on the Hun School boys’ hockey team shaved grooves into the sides of the hair on their heads.

As Hun fought through a tortuous schedule this winter stocked with Prep powers and brought a 4-15 record into the MCT, the players kept their heads, never losing focus on a run for a fourth straight county crown.

“We always came out with the same thing in mind for us to do and we just fell apart at the end,” said Hun senior co-captain and star forward Blake Brown, reflecting on the team’s rough regular season which included losses to such powers as Delbarton, Hill School (Pa.), LaSalle College High (Pa.), and Don Bosco.

“Some of the other teams had a lot more guys than us. It got us ready for this tournament. Without a doubt, we have had this on our minds since last year.”

While the players’ new hair style showed their commitment to that goal, the players did draw the ire of the administration for violating the school’s dress code.

In the end, the seventh-seeded Raiders made the school proud, rolling into the final and then surviving a hair-raising title game, edging top-seeded Princeton High 4-3 before a standing room only crowd at the Mercer County Park rink.

After outscoring their foes 20-4 in the three wins leading into the clash with PHS, it looked like Hun might cruise to victory when it scored a pair of goals in a 10-second span in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.

“We started connecting toward the end of the first period and we managed to put two together,” said Brown.

“We kind of left off after the end of the first period but we were able to come back.”

After PHS scored early in the second period to make it 2-1, Brown threaded a pass to freshman Eddie Evaldi, who banged it home for a short-handed goal to give the Raiders a 3-1 lead.

“Their guy stepped up on me and I was able to get away from him,” said Brown, recalling the goal. “I heard Eddie screaming a mile away so I had to get it to him.”

The Little Tigers got the packed rink screaming, scoring two goals in the first five minutes of the period to knot the contest at 3-3. But Brown and his teammates responded as Evaldi, who was named the tournament MVP, scored with 10:38 left in regulation and Hun held on for a 4-3 win.

“I was concerned but I knew we had it in us,” said Brown, who ended up with two assists on the evening. “I knew all the seniors weren’t going to give up at all, everyone contributed so it was an awesome win.”

While Hun head coach Ian McNally initially thought his team might be able to translate its 2-0 lead into a lopsided win, he sensed that PHS wasn’t going to give up.

“In a game like this obviously they are going to battle back; we should have been a bit more ready for it,” said McNally.

“It is hard to get our guys, because they love to think offense, to realize when you are up a couple to change your ideas so they had a couple of breakaways.”

As the contest turned into a thriller, McNally savored the action. “I have no control over the game so it was let them go play,” said McNally. “Everyone is having fun, everyone is into it.”

Although it wasn’t fun for Hun to deal with a steady diet of losing this winter, the Raiders never lost faith in their ability.

“Almost every game for long stretches we were right in it and to their credit, they thought that too,” said McNally, reflecting on a campaign that saw Hun post a final record of 8-16.

“No one was ever like — ‘this season is terrible or we are bad’; everyone was in it the whole time with this being the light at the end of the tunnel. When we get to the MCT and we get Notre Dame and PHS, those will be good games and we will be able to score more goals.”

McNally credited senior co-captains Brown and star defenseman Tanner Preston along with the rest of their classmates for keeping Hun focused through the county tourney.

“All of them played a pretty big role in this tournament, that is what makes us able to do this stuff,” said McNally, whose group of seniors included Griffin Ferrara, Joseph O’Dowd, Sam Schluter, Liam Fitzgerald, John Chapel, Eli Panter, Bryce Tolmie, and Logan Leppo in addition to Brown and Preston.

“With Blake and Tanner, we know what we are getting out of them, they are consistent. Tanner must have gone around 15 guys there on his own at times tonight. Blake is everywhere. You beat Blake and then all of a sudden he is right by you. All of those guys were talking during game and they were very into this because a lot of them won’t ever play on a team again. That means something and they have treated it that way, especially guys who aren’t primarily hockey guys.”

Ending his high school career with a fourth straight county title meant the world to Brown.

“It is the perfect way to end my high school career, I couldn’t imagine a better way to finish it,” said a grinning Brown, who is looking to keep playing at the college level or in juniors next winter.

“I love everyone I have ever played with, especially these boys. We were just able to bring it out in the last game.”