STONEHAM — On the same day that the USA women’s hockey team ended a 20-year Olympic gold medal drought, and 38 years to the day after Team USA shocked the world winning the men’s gold medal at Lake Placid, the Bishop Fenwick girls hockey team staged its own miracle on ice Thursday morning at Stoneham Arena.
Needing a win in their final two games of the season to qualify for the Division 2 tournament, the Crusaders (9-9-2) defeated Auburn 4-2 Wednesday, a team they had never beaten in the 7-year history of the Fenwick girls hockey program, to keep their tourney hopes alive and set up a do-or-die contest against host Wilmington, a team which had manhandled Fenwick 4-0 in an earlier meeting last month.
This time, however, it was Fenwick who had the upper hand, winning a 2-1 thriller, but it went right down to the final two minutes.
Junior forward Lexi McNeil scored the game-winning goal at the 4:08 mark of the third period. But there was little time to enjoy it, as a Fenwick penalty for high sticking with two minutes left opened the door for the Wildcats, who skated the rest of the game on the power play, including the last minute when they pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4 advantage.
Fenwick, however, shut that door in a big way to preserve the win and set off a well-deserved celebration by a gleeful Crusaders team, which will be making it second trip in program history and second in the last four years to the tournament.
“It’s very emotional right now,” said Fenwick coach Doug Anderson. “We played three games in a row with a lot of intensity and a lot of spirit, even though we lost the Peabody game. After the Auburn game yesterday and today, what a great week. We honored our seniors yesterday and all five of them were there when we made the tournament for the first time three years ago. For them to be able to do it again with their teammates, was just incredible.
“For the first two periods, we played a little tentatively, but we sort of all joined hands and said, hey, we can do this, and we did it we are all very happy right now.”
Wilmington came out on the attack from the opening puck drop. Three times in the first period alone the Wildcats slipped in on breakaways, but Fenwick’s sophomore goaltender Cailyn Wesley kept them off the board.
With 6:03 to play in the period, senior captain Amanda Blanchette, Fenwick’s all-time leading goal scorer, poked the puck home in a scramble, to put the Crusaders on top, 1-0. Freshman forward Gabby Davern was credited with an assist.
The lead didn’t last long.
A little more than a minute later, it was Wilmington’s leading scorer, Jillian Miele, who put on a show. She took a feed from Lia Kourkoutas, split the defense with a couple of fancy stick moves and broke in alone on Wesley, then drilled the equalizer home from point blank range.
Fenwick opened the second period down a man, but successfully killed off the penalty, its second of the game. The Crusaders would go on to kill four of four penalties, limiting the Wildcats to just four total shots on goal, most from bad angles.
“Allie Giguere, Jill Mattucchi, Gabby Davern and Amanda (Blanchette) did a fantastic job on the penalty kill today,” said Anderson. “They play disciplined and we have good goaltending and the only shots we gave them were low-angle shots, if any, and you know when you have Cailyn backing up the box area that makes for success. With five players in the scoring zone, they did a good job containing them.”
Both teams had good scoring chances in the second period. Fenwick’s best chance came about two minutes in when Blanchette was robbed by Wilmington goalie Melanie Hayden.
Wesley came up with another huge save on a Miele breakaway, then covered up the puck in a scrum and held on.
The Crusaders came out aggressively in the third period. Two minutes in, freshman Allison Countie was denied on a backhand flip. On the ensuing faceoff in the left circle, won by freshman Olivia Lojacono, the puck ended up loose in the crease, but Hayden managed to cover up safely.
With about seven minutes left, Giguere saved the day defensively. She and Payton Fuller were in chase of a loose puck in the Crusaders’ defensive zone, but Giguere played Fuller off the puck into the boards to deny the threat.
With a little less than five minutes left in the game and the game still a 1-1 stalemate, Blanchette won a draw in the offensive zone and played the puck back to McNeil, whose shot was bobbled by Hayden.
Hayden was not as lucky on the next Fenwick shot. After Blanchette won the ensuing faceoff, the puck ended up on the stick of McNeil, who the game winner home with with 4:08 to play. Davern and Mattucci earned assists.
Anderson rewarded the team with a well-deserved rest.
“With three games in four days, it has been a real grind, so today a lot of girls had planned to go home with parents, but I told them we are all going home on the bus,” he said. “They deserve to play their music and celebrate today and will take a day of two off , then get back to it on Sunday.”