Battle-tested girls hockey team eyes playoff spot

The Canton High girls ice hockey team had its five-game unbeaten streak snapped last week but remains in the thick of the playoff chase after an impressive performance against Medfield on Saturday.

Senior captain Mary Nee (Mike Barucci photo)

Sitting right at .500 with a 6-6-4 mark, the lady Bulldogs began play this week needing to win two of their final four games to sew up a spot in the Division 2 tournament.

“We’re right where we want to be,” said head coach Dennis Aldrich after Saturday’s 0-0 draw against the Warriors. “If we play the way we have been playing then I think we should be fine.”

Aldrich noted how well the team has fared against top-notch opponents this season — and that includes Medfield, which is 12-2-2 overall but winless (0-1-1) in the season series against Canton.

In last week’s rematch, the Bulldogs once again looked like the better team as they outshot the Warriors 30-21 and controlled the action for much of the game.

“It was a very physical game as far as girls hockey goes,” said Aldrich afterwards. “They have a couple of kids that really fly so we kept a third forward out high just to give our ‘D’ a little bit of help with those kids on the rush.”

But all in all, it was another tremendous effort on the part of the defense, led by senior captain Mary Nee, who barely left the ice and nearly won it by herself with a last-second shot attempt on a breakaway.

“She was clearly the player of the game,” Aldrich said of Nee. “That was the best defensive effort I’ve seen out of a Canton girls ice hockey player in a long time.”

The Canton coach also had similarly high praise for sophomore netminder Colleen Kelleher, who stopped all 21 shots she faced and picked up her sixth shutout of the campaign.

“I’ve seen a lot of good goalies this year, but Colleen is the best I’ve seen,” said Aldrich. “Day in and day out I’ve seen how hard she works. And she hates to be scored on — even in practice.”

Kelleher did surrender a few in the team’s 3-1 loss to Barnstable last week, but one was an empty netter and she still managed 32 saves.

Aldrich said the girls looked “sluggish” after having not skated in nearly a week. Still, it was a 1-1 game until about four minutes remaining in the third, when the Raiders went ahead on a power play goal.

“We were hoping to get out of there with a point, but it didn’t work out that way,” he said. “But it wasn’t due to lack of effort certainly.”

After a road game on Monday against Franklin, the Bulldogs were due to host Medway on Wednesday in their final home game of the season. The girls will visit Whitman-Hanson tomorrow afternoon and will close out the regular season next Thursday at Walpole.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 19 2016. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.