WINTHROP — A five-goal second period was all the Winthrop girls hockey team needed to take down Bishop Fenwick, 6-0, at Larsen Rink Thursday night. The Vikings bombarded Fenwick with shots on goal all night, outshooting the Crusaders 39-11.
“I thought we started off pretty slow, which might’ve been partly because of our tough loss on Saturday (5-2 to Masconomet), but we got used to the pace during the first period,” said Winthrop coach Anthony Martucci. “We adjusted well and came out with a great second period that put us over the top.”
Senior captain McKayla Norris and sophomore Olivia Driscoll scored two goals each to lead the way for Winthrop, while senior Ashley Miles had one goal and two assists. Senior captain Catie O’Shea had one goal and two assists, while senior Grace Carleton, freshman Kaiya Rodriguez and eighth-grader Mia Martucci each had one assist. All three Winthrop goalies got into the game, as Summer Tallent, Sabrina Dembro and Ana Baurle combined for 11 saves in the win.
Despite the six goals given up, the Fenwick goalies stood on their heads in this one. Starter Caylin Wesley had 23 saves in the first two periods, then Daphne Jalbert finished off the game with 10 saves in the final frame. Senior captain and Lynn product Allie Giguere was outstanding on defense as well.
“Give credit to Winthrop, they might be the best team we play all year,” said Fenwick coach Doug Anderson. “We played a great first period, but in the end we’re just not deep enough at this point to sustain that kind of performance against such a strong, deep team.”
The two teams ended the first period deadlocked at 0-0, but they played very different periods. The Vikings were on the attack from the opening faceoff and registered 17 shots on goal to Fenwick’s three. It was only thanks to the stellar play of Wesley that the Crusaders even finished the period without giving up any goals.
But it didn’t last too long, as Winthrop started wearing Fenwick down in the second period. It started when Miles set up O’Shea in front of the net to make it 1-0 with 13:31 to go. A short while later, the Vikings rattled off three goals in three and a half minutes, including two goals in 10 seconds, to really break the game open. Miles was the first to score, set up by O’Shea on a play that looked eerily similar to O’Shea’s goal. The Vikings proceeded to win the ensuing faceoff and take the puck right into the Fenwick zone, where Carleton left a pass for Driscoll to knock into the net and make it 3-0. After killing off a penalty, Miles earned her second assist of the night when she faked a wraparound shot and sent a great pass to Norris out front for a one-timer goal. Driscoll ended the flurry of scoring for Winthrop when she scored with 1:12 left in the period to make it 5-0.
“Fenwick was really defending the perimeter well, so what we talked about after the first period was attacking the net more,” said Martucci. “Once we started getting to the net, the goals started coming. Sometimes it only takes one to get it going.”
After Norris scored her second of the game late in the third period, the game was all but wrapped up.
The Vikings (5-1-1) hope to ride this momentum into tomorrow night when they travel up to Bourque Arena to take on Beverly.
“That loss was tough for us on Saturday, so this was a good way to bounce back,” Martucci said. “Now we’ve got a big one coming up against another great team in Beverly, so hopefully we can ride this momentum a bit.”
Fenwick (4-3-1) has a rematch against Marblehead on Sunday morning. The Crusaders lost to the Magicians 3-2 on New Year’s Eve.
“We’re not discouraged,” said Anderson. “We’re just looking forward to the next opportunity to keep getting better and keep building this program up.”