Girls hockey bows to Wellesley in finals rematch

For the second time in as many seasons, the Canton High girls hockey team had their championship dreams dashed by a deep and talented Wellesley Raiders squad.

Only this time, the end came swiftly and suddenly — with a 5-0 loss in the second round of the Division 2 state tournament.

Sophomore Ellie Rae Roberts (Mike Barucci photo)

As a result, the lady Bulldogs will not be making a third straight trip to the Boston Garden this year, although head coach Dennis Aldrich would not be surprised in the least to see the Raiders back there after getting an up-close look at them Monday night in Watertown.

“That was the best team that we played all year,” said Aldrich the morning after the game. “They had three real good lines; they were very skilled and very strong. They had an excellent defensive corps and their goaltender was a lot more fundamentally sound than last year.”

Despite the lopsided final score, Aldrich said he was “not disappointed at all” with the way his team played and thought it was more a result of what Wellesley did right rather than what Canton did wrong.

“I thought we broke the puck out well,” he said. “We had a little bit of a slow start establishing our forecheck, but when we implemented that I think we had them bottled in a bit.”

“We played with the same grit; we just ran into a better team,” he said.

Canton did fall victim to another slow start — an issue for this team in past games as well — and it manifested on the scoreboard as Wellesley built an early 2-0 lead. The Raiders would go on to dominate the second frame and add two more goals, but the Bulldogs showed impressive fight in the final period, outshooting Wellesley 10-9 despite coming up empty on the score sheet.

While not taking anything away from Wellesley’s performance, Aldrich said his only real gripe was that the rematch between last year’s two state finalists happened so early in the tournament. Despite drawing the 12 seed in the 25-team bracket, the Canton coach felt the Bulldogs was closer to the top in terms of overall talent and certainly had the ability to contend for a final four spot.

Still, even with the quicker than expected exit, Aldrich was proud of this year’s group and absolutely considers it a successful season. He was especially effusive in his praise for the team’s senior members, who were key parts of two state finalist runs.

In particular, he said the lady Bulldogs would not have gone nearly as far as they did over the past few seasons without the offensive firepower at the top from the likes of Maggie Malloy and Lauren Fitzpatrick, both multi-time all-stars who combined for more than half the team’s total scoring output this season.

Meanwhile, the Canton defense, one of the deepest in the state, benefited from the speed and skill of all-star Leah McClellan and the steady contributions of four-year player Katie Trerice. Senior goalie Ava Pacitti also rose to the occasion in her lone season as a starter, earning a league all-star nod while posting a .912 save percentage. Rounding out the senior class were defenseman Theresa O’Brien and forward Lindsay McManus, two key depth pieces who saw action in almost every game for a 12-win team.

Next year’s squad will certainly have a new look and feel, but Aldrich is confident that they can be competitive, led by veteran defensemen Alexa Maffeo and Meg Aldrich and emerging forwards Lizzie Tassinari and Ellie Rae Roberts. The key, Aldrich said, will be their level of offseason commitment and hopefully a continued focus on strength and conditioning.

“We’ve got a good influx of talent coming in, but certainly as a program we’re going to have to really work in the offseason,” he said. “We need to get a lot stronger, which is going to help in our speed and with our shots, and hopefully turn more of those scoring chances into goals.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Mar 9 2019. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.