CHS girls hockey bounces back with 2 shutout wins

After three consecutive games without a victory to start off the new year, the Canton High girls ice hockey team enjoyed a bounce-back week with consecutive shutout wins against nonleague Medway and Medfield.

Senior captain Ellie Bohane (Mike Tureski photo)

With the victories, the Bulldogs improved to 8-2-2 on the season and moved up to No. 7 overall out of 51 teams in the MIAA Division 2 power rankings. Under the new postseason format, teams that land in the top 33 automatically qualify for the state tournament, with additional spots left open for lower ranked teams that finish with a .500 or better overall record.

Canton, however, is already a virtual lock to make the playoffs with nine games left to play. What concerns coach Nikki Petrich are bigger-picture questions, like whether the Bulldogs can avoid penalties, make crisp passes, and take advantage of their scoring chances consistently to put teams away when it counts.

Assessing her team’s performance in last week’s victories, Petrich described it as a mixed bag. While she didn’t think they played particularly well in their road win against Medfield — mustering only 12 total shots through three periods — Petrich said she was very encouraged by their performance against Medway a few days earlier.

“I thought that was probably our best game of the season to date,” she said. “We didn’t commit any penalties, and we outshot them by almost a 3-1 margin.”

Petrich also recently shuffled the forward lines, moving senior Ellie Bohane up to play with Audrey Koen and Izzy Cusack, and the decision has already started to pay dividends.

Bohane, especially, has been red-hot offensively since joining her new linemates, scoring three of the team’s four goals in their two wins last week. Cusack added the other goal with an assist from Koen, meaning that their top line accounted for all of the team’s scoring.

“Since we moved Ellie up they’ve been great and really have produced most of our offense,” said Petrich. “But we need to get some more production from the other three lines. We need to take advantage of our opportunities and put the puck away.”

On the bright side, the Bulldogs boast one of the top goaltenders in the state in senior Carolyn Durand, and when combined with a highly productive top forward line, they are well on their way to competing against top teams in high-stakes environments.

The Bulldogs will certainly get an early test as their schedule is about to get significantly tougher with a brutal stretch against four of the top-ranked teams in Division 2, including No. 1 Archbishop Williams, No. 2 Duxbury, No. 5 Sandwich, and the team that broke their hearts in last year’s D2 state final, No. 4 Algonquin Regional.

This week, the girls were due to host the Hockomock Stars and Franklin and will then head to the Foxboro Sports Center on Monday as they look to avenge a recent 3-0 loss to league rival King Philip.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jan 26 2023. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.