CHS girls hockey punches return ticket to TD Garden

One year removed from their Cinderella run to the brink of a state championship as a double-digit seed, the Canton High girls varsity ice hockey team is headed back to the TD Boston Garden — this time in the role of a highly ranked contender with some serious unfinished business to attend to.

Seeded No. 2 overall in the 24-team MIAA Division 2 bracket, the lady Bulldogs (18-3-3) have reeled off three consecutive postseason wins and will now do battle with the top-seeded Wellesley Raiders (18-2-3) in a final heavyweight clash on Sunday, March 18, at the home of the Boston Bruins.

The CHS girls hockey team celebrates after their semifinal win vs. Archbishop Williams. (Tim O’Connor photo)

Both squads will be eyeing not merely a state championship, but a broader sense of redemption as Canton attempts to cash in on its second straight trip to the title game while Wellesley looks to make good on its return following three consecutive finals losses from 2014 to 2016.

The two powerhouse teams also have another thing in common: both had their hearts broken by Notre Dame Academy of Hingham — and in back to back years no less — although the Bulldogs recently got the chance to exorcise those demons and made good on the opportunity, outdueling this year’s 10th seeded Cougars 5-2 in the D2 quarterfinals and eliminating them from the tournament.

In that game, played last Tuesday at the Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, junior forward Maggie Malloy was once again the heroine for Canton as she followed up her opening-round hat trick with a four-point outing against the defending champs. Malloy found the back of the net in each of the first two periods, and Andrea McNeil, Lauren Fitzpatrick, and Kendra Farrelly added one goal apiece as the Bulldogs stole the show in the highly anticipated rematch.

After the game, head coach Dennis Aldrich noted that they came in with confidence that stemmed in large part from a preseason scrimmage that they had with NDA back in early December. Aldrich said he had intentionally scheduled that matchup, which ended in a 2-2 draw. “Last year, we hoped we could skate with them but we weren’t sure,” he said. “Then we scrimmaged them at the start of the year and the biggest takeaway we had was that we knew we could skate with them.”

The shots were fairly even in the game at 23-22, but Canton out-skated and out-possessed the Cougars for the majority of the contest and never trailed. Canton’s top D pairings of Leah McClellan and Alexa Maffeo and Katie Trerice and Meg Aldrich worked hard to minimize NDA’s scoring opportunities while senior goaltender Colleen Kelleher was stout in net, finishing with 20 total saves.

With the victory, the Bulldogs earned a return trip to Warrior Arena for a Monday night semifinal showdown with third-seeded Archbishop Williams. Despite the imminent threat of snow, a large and energetic home crowd made the evening trek to Brighton and the Canton girls rewarded them with another stellar performance, punching their ticket back to the title game with a 1-0 win.

Malloy had the lone tally for the Bulldogs in the second period — her sixth goal of the postseason — but it was very much a team effort as Canton dominated the action while outshooting the Bishops 36-13. “It was one of those games where we did everything right but just did not have any puck luck,” said Aldridge. “Archbishop Williams has a terrific goaltender and she made several huge stops, but overall I thought we played a spectacular game.”

On the other end of the ice, Kelleher enjoyed a mostly quiet night but still nabbed a shutout and produced a few key saves late in a close game. “She’s a big-game player for us and that was certainly a big game, even though we dominated in zone time and shooting,” Aldrich said of his MVP netminder. “They had like three quality shots that we needed to rely on Colleen for and she turned away all of them.”

In addition to heaping praise on Kelleher as well as Malloy, who has been sensational over the past few weeks of the season, the Canton coach was also very impressed with the play of his two freshmen wingers, Lizzie Tassinari and Maria Femia, who gave the ABW defensemen “fits” over the course of the game.

“They both really rose to the occasion,” said Aldrich, “and that is not something you often see from freshmen, certainly not in a game of that magnitude.”

Aldrich also praised the performance of his defensive corps — and especially Trerice, who has quietly been playing some of the best hockey of her career over the past several weeks. And despite mustering only one goal on the offensive end, Canton got contributions from all three of its forward lines, including from McNeil and Fitzpatrick as well as the third grouping of Marissa Devane, Ellie Rae Roberts, and Katie Halloran.

Looking ahead to the matchup with Wellesley, Aldrich said he has spoken to a number of coaches who have raved about the Raiders’ overall depth and their lack of any real weaknesses. Still, he said he has yet to see a team this season that’s better than the Bulldogs, and he’s not about to doubt them now as they head into the biggest game of their young lives.

“I anticipate a great game and I do anticipate us coming out on top,” said Aldrich. “I just can’t count this group of girls out, no matter who the opponent is.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 16 2018. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.