By Josh Perry || HockomockSports.com Managing Editor
BOSTON, Mass. – Less than a minute after Canton battled back to tie Sunday afternoon’s thrilling Div. 2 state title game at the TD Garden, the Bulldogs allowed Tewksbury star Tyler Bourgea to get behind the defense. The only person standing between one of the best forwards in the state and the Redmen regaining the lead was Canton senior goalie Matt Wright.
Bourgea drove at goal, going to his backhand side. Wright, who waited three years to finally get his chance to be the Canton starter, stayed with the puck and flashed out a right pad. At full stretch, he was able to make the save and preserve the tie.
The biggest game of his high school career turned out to be his best. Behind Wright’s 22 saves, Canton (24-1-0) rallied and scored a pair of third period goals, from juniors Ryan Elrick and Cam Guerschuny, to pull out a 2-1 win and secure the program’s fourth state title in the past seven seasons.
“That’s the defining moment right there,” senior defenseman Teddy Shuman said about Wright’s breakaway save. “That’s the best player in the state coming down. Everything was in slow motion right there.”
He continued, “When he got the pad out, I looked at the bench and I said let’s go, now we’ve got this. That was the turning point. It came very late, but it flipped the script. That’s a save that should be played a lot in the future.”
After the game, Canton coach Brian Shuman embraced Wright and shared a moment with a player who he’s seen play for more than a decade. Asked about that moment, Shuman was effusive in his praise for his goalie.
“Matt didn’t even dress in this game,” he said about the 2025 final. “We were the last two out of the locker room and we were both in tears and he said to me, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I can bring us back.’ I said, you absolutely can.”
“We just had a moment on the ice remembering what happened a year ago.”
Canton came into the final having allowed just 16 goals in 24 games. Wright was quick to praise “the best defense in the state” for that stat, but he has played a massive (and largely unheralded) role in the Bulldogs lifting the trophy.
In just the final three rounds of the tournament, he came through with a huge save in the final minute to preserve a one-goal lead and a shutout in the quarterfinal against Walpole. Against Burlington in the Final Four, he made several key stops to give Canton the chance to figure things out and make a comeback.
On Sunday, Wright was tested time and again by one of the most potent attacking teams in the state and each time he passed.
He had to make 10 saves in the first period against Tewksbury. He gloved a backhand shot from the slot, made a series of point-blank stops by staying strong with his pads, and showed off his reflexes to deny a late redirection that had him off balance. It continued into the second, where he twice made saves when Bourgea got free on the left side.
A rare defensive slip gave Tewksbury the lead with a second to play before the intermission, but the Bulldogs rallied. Elrick picked the corner three minutes into the third to make it 1-1. Tewksbury could have jumped right back in front if not for Wright’s heroics on the Bourgea breakaway.
Asked about the save of the night, Wright replied, “Really just don’t mess up, that was the thought in my head. It was a big moment and to be honest I can’t remember, it was just a lot. After that, I was like okay we’ve got it, we’re going to pull this one out. That’s all I can remember. It’s a blur right now.”
He also made a point-blank stop on Jack Ryan and another good save on Jake Batts when he got free on the edge of the crease with less than four minutes to play.
As the final horn sounded, Wright flung his stick, his glove, and his mask to the sky and was quickly embraced by sophomore forward Brayden Dickie before being engulfed by the rest of his teammates.
“I was nervous,” Wright admitted with a laugh when asked about his mindset coming into the final. “Just staying settled in net is super important. Not getting too high, not getting too low, but we all came back for the third settled down and that made all the difference.”
Wright had a long, difficult wait to get his opportunity to play for Canton, but he got the dream ending. Almost 30 minutes after the game, it was all still sinking in for him and his classmates.
“It was so special for him and it was so special for us to see him bring it home like he did today,” Teddy Shuman said. “He was the MVP today and he was awesome.”
Shuman added, “I’m getting chills. I’m so proud of him. He’s the hardest worker and I feel like he kind of doubted himself last year and working with him all offseason, I’ve never seen someone work harder. I’m a big believer that hard work shows up on the biggest stage and it did today.”
