Gold star: Thayer's Morgan McGathey won under-18 women's hockey world crown with Team USA

BRAINTREE – Among Morgan McGathey's many notable games this winter was a sturdy performance in a rare win over Tabor Academy on Jan. 17. She remembers scoring a goal in that one. The rest of the details are a little fuzzy in her mind.

Understandably so.

McGathey, a junior center for the Thayer Academy girls hockey team, had just flown home to Braintree from Switzerland the night before after leading Team USA to a gold medal at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship.

"With the time change and the excitement around the gold medal and all that she had put into the week prior, it's amazing that she came" to Thayer's game, said Tigers coach Brandy Fisher-Bailey. "We all missed her. She's a big part of who we are at Thayer."

"She was super strong and physical" in that Tabor game, said volunteer assistant coach Chris Bailey. "She was probably not as involved as usual in the forecheck piece; she seemed to be observing more. But I think that was just the six-hour time change. When you ask her now about that game, she doesn't even remember it."

McGathey, Thayer's first-line center and leading scorer, acknowledged the Tabor outing was "kind of a blur, a little bit of jet lag." Still, there was no doubt in her mind that she was playing. "I wanted to jump right back in," she said. "I was excited to get back home and see (my teammates)."

Asked if she was surprised by McGathey's immediate return to the lineup, junior winger Kate Sullivan, of Hingham, said, "Absolutely not. She always has a chip on her shoulder. She's one of the most competitive people I know. The moment she has a chance to get on the ice, she takes it."

USA all the way

Team USA was dominant in Switzerland, winning all six games in regulation while outscoring opponents 32-5 and outshooting them 275-96. McGathey and company enjoyed overwhelming shot advantages against Slovakia (63-10) and Germany (58-7) in pool play and against Finland (44-16) in the semifinals.

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"We went into the tournament with the goal of winning gold, but we took one game at a time and took every team (seriously)," said McGathey, a Harvard commit who had 2 goals and 6 assists for the U.S. in the tournament. In the gold-medal game against Czechia, she set up Haley Box for a 2-0 lead in what became a 5-1 victory.

Asked what she remembered most about the final on-ice celebration, McGathey said, "Hanging out with my teammates and taking it all in and hugging them all. And, obviously, singing the national anthem together was really special."

Team USA had a big Massachusetts contingent – seven players overall, including Scituate's Molly Boyle, a Yale commit who plays at Phillips Academy in Andover; and Marshfield's Alanna Devlin, a Boston College commit who plays for the North American Hockey Academy in Wellesley.

Ex-Thayer star Melissa Piacentini also was there as a video coach. Piacentini stared at Syracuse (she's the program's all-time leading scorer) and now is an assistant coach for Northeastern, which won the Women's Beanpot at TD Garden last week.

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Also, U.S. coach Liz Keady Norton is a Braintree native who played at Milton Academy and Princeton and now coaches the Dartmouth College women's team. "Mass. people are really loyal, and, when you get them on your side, they’re going to go through a wall for you," she told mahockey.org.. "... I think the Mass. kids did Mass. proud."

McGathey's Thayer teammates hung on every shift of the worlds.

"It was just constant, 'Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan.' 'Morgan scored a goal!' 'Morgan got an assist!'" said Fisher-Bailey, who won a pair of silver medals with the U.S. at the senior world championships in 1999 and 2000. "It was awesome to hear the support in the locker room."

"It was incredible," Sullivan said of following McGathey's progress. "We love watching her succeed. We thrive off each other's success, so I think our team thrived off watching her getting all those goals and points and contributing on that higher level."

'An A-plus player'

Back home, McGathey has picked up where she left off, leading the Tigers (11-4-2) with 19 goals and 8 assists. For her career she's got 67 goals and 29 assists for 96 points.

"There are so many things about her game that I like," Bailey said. "I could name a hundred things."

"Obviously, she's an A-plus player, right?" said Fisher-Bailey. "She's skilled, she's strong, she's fast, she has a high compete level. Plus, she just has what we call an A-plus attitude. She doesn't take anything for granted. We have a young team, and they all look up to her. She's like the consummate team player."

As she forges her own career, McGathey has plenty of elite-level experience behind her on the Thayer bench. Bailey and Fisher-Bailey, who are married and live in Duxbury, are both decorated veterans of the college and international games.

Bailey won a gold medal with the U.S. women's hockey team at the Nagano (Japan) Olympics in 1998 and a silver at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. As a senior at New Hampshire in 1998, Fisher-Bailey was the inaugural winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the top women's college player in the country while leading the Wildcats to a national title. She also won two silvers at the senior world championships, plus three more at the Four Nations Cup from 1998-2000.

McGathey calls her Thayer coaches (the staff is rounded out by Brad Peterson) "great people (with) great character. To have them here and supporting me and developing my game is awesome and a huge reason why I chose Thayer."

Bailey raves that McGathey "has all of the unteachables already in her package ... that will get her to the next level," adding, "Since the moment I met her, I could tell that she was different."

Fisher-Bailey said she sees a lot of herself in McGathey's single-minded focus. "I ate, slept and drank hockey," Fisher-Bailey said. "There is a difference (between just liking hockey and committing to it). I see how much she loves it. There's a twinkle in her eye; she loves to compete. ... I'm lucky to coach a kid like her."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Thayer's McGathey right back to work after winning U-18 gold with U.S.