Archive for February, 2009

From the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   These days, the Walpole High girls’ hockey team is a lot like New England weather, something we’ve seen a bit too much of in recent weeks.
   The weather, not the girls, by the way.
   The first way in which they are alike is that you never know what you are going to get until you get it, and forecasts are almost useless. You just have to wait until that day to see what nature brings.
   The second way they are alike is in how they can go to extremes. Bitterly cold days can be followed by record-breaking highs up here in the northeast, and droughts can be quickly replaced by deluges.
   Take the last couple of weeks, for instance. A high-scoring machine scored a team-record 11 goals as it zipped along unbeaten the first few weeks of the season. Then, there was a string of four losses and one tie in which the Rebels only scored a total of one goal – a lone tally by Kristen Morrissey in a 3-1 loss top front-running Wellesley Jan. 17.
   But like New England weather, the Rebels – fortunately – never stay the same, and they erupted last week with 16 goals in two wins, putting them in the postseason for the first time in their five-year history.
   The victories, a solid 6-1 win over Natick at the Iorio Arena Friday and a 10-0 victory over first-year program Weymouth at home Saturday, improved Walpole’s record to 10-4-2, with four league games to go.
   If the locals continue scoring, there’s no reason why they can’t steal home ice advantage to start the tourney, despite the record dip in the middle of the season. While the forwards stopped scoring, the goalies didn’t stop stopping scores.
   Only a 5-on-3 power play goal that she could do nothing about, long after the Rebels had the Natick game in hand, blemished another shutout bid by Sue Cunniff, and fellow senior Steph Kelly shut out the Wildcats for the second time this year. Between them, the netminders have allowed only 18 goals in 16 games, with four shutouts and seven one-goal games. The most either has let in during one contest were three, in a victory over Newton North and the loss to Wellesley when the Rebels were already shorthanded
   Natick came on like gangbusters to start the Friday game, and really had the Rebels back on their heels for the first 10 minutes. They probably got the message that the locals are okay once they get that first goal and get a lead, but lose confidence at times when behind.
   The only problem was that Cunniff wasn’t going to let them get behind, and neither was Rachel McMillan, who scored the first goal on the first shift, at just 1:23, with the help of Jacey Dold.
   For the next seven minutes, however, the Red and Blue made a great effort to equal the score, trying to take advantage of a few Walpole mistakes.
   A half minute after Walpole’s score the Rebels were shorthanded, and Natick began pummeling the net, but Cunniff made two big saves only 15 seconds apart to start the power play, the second off a shot by first-line center Becky Harvey from the right defense face-off circle.
   Cunniff withstood the man-down with the help of penalty killers Vittoria Petrillo, Emily Cronin, Lauren Whittemore and Michelle Lennon, and when it ended, Steph Frye took the pressure off by skating end to end and getting a shot on Natick goalie Kiley Fitzgerald.
   The Natick barrage began again right away with a Gina Zambarano backhander, however, and the Rebels were forced to ice the puck.
   Cunniff made what became her biggest save eight minutes into the game. Walpole defender Hannah Feeley’s clearing pass ended up on the dangerous Harvey’s stick in the right defense circle, and she immediately ripped a shot on net. Cunniff made the stick save, however.
   The period ended with Natick killing off a tripping call and Fitzgerald stopping a Lennon backhander. There was no relief for the red and Blue in the second, however.
   It was the newly formed second line of Kelsey Cosby, Emily Cronin and Kellie Duffy that took the Red and Blue apart in the middle stanza as Walpole scored four unanswered goals.
The barrage started at 1:32 when Duffy unloaded a shot from between the circles and Cronin tipped it past Fitzgerald.
   A little over a minute later, at 2:49, Dold made it 3-0 when she stopped a clear by Natick defenseman Sherilyn Spencer in the Natick end and forced her to lose the puck. Dold then tracked down the rubber and backhanded it over Fitzgerald’s stick for an unassisted score.
By this time Walpole was quickly taking over the game, even when Natick went back on the power play at 5:16 following a debatable checking call on Whittemore as she simply leaned over to get a loose puck and made contact.
   Penalty killing by Petrillo, Feeley Cronin and Lennon shut off the Red and Blue, however.
   It was a great goal by Lennon, set up by Cosby, that broke Natick’s back with 6:30 left in the second, however. Cosby picked pu the puck along the back boards and could have gone to the post with no one in front of her, but instead drew the defender over and fed Lennon up top for a wrist shot to make it 4-0.
   Walpole scored one more in the second, with 3:47 to go. Again it was off a smart set-up by Cosby, and Cronin lifted it on net from 12 feet out. Her second goal went off Fitzgerald’s glove and in.
   The middle stanza ended with Cunniff making a nice save on a Caroline Quinn wraparound attempt.
   Walpole got another golden opportunity to score early in the third and didn’t squander it. Lennon was carrying the puck up right wing and was slammed into the corner boards, earning a roughing call on the Red and Blue for trying to make her black and blue.
   Just eight seconds into the power play the defense scored as Feeley slid the puck from left point to Jackie Kelliher on right point, and Kelliher’s first career goal rolled off Fitzgerald’s pads, went up in the air, and over her left shoulder into the net.
   The shutout was finally spoiled at 6:21, but the Red and Blue still had to earn it. With 9:55 left Julia Tosone was hit with a roughing call, and Dold, Lennon, Whittemore and Feeley went out to kill it.
   With 9:13 left, after Walpole iced the puck, the Rebels attempted to make two personnel changes, with a girl coming off each end of the bench. That drew a too-many-men-on-the-ice call, as the ref thought there was only one change and that a girl was leaving the bench too early. The Rebels were down to Petrillo, Feeley and Cronin valiantly trying to protect the net, but with 8:39 to go, Spencer slammed the rebound of a Harvey shot over Cunniff’s left shoulder.
   “It’s about time,” offered Coach Joe Verderber of the scoring spree. “It’s nice to see the girls break out. Hopefully, they’re regaining their confidence and can pt the puck in the net.”
   Along with the renewed confidence, however is the realignment of the offense. The line of Cronin, Cosby and Duffy is unselfish and plays together well. Steph Frye has been put with Morrison and Tosone, and the beauty of this unit is that Frye and Tosone can score on any line since they are two of the better individual playmakers in the league.
   “Today was a great display of our passing and unselfishness,” continued Verderber. “It’s a key to our moving forward.”
   The goal eruption continued into Saturday’s game when the Rebels improved upon an earlier 6-0 win over the Wildcats in Weymouth.
   Walpole was nursing a 1-0 lead into the second period, and then rolled again through the middle stanza, tacking on a team record six goals in the 15-minute period. They added three more in the third for the final score.
   The game marked the return to prominence as scorer for Rachel McMillan, getting her first full game back from injury and Morrissey, the hottest scorer on the team before the drought.
   Each scored twice, McMillan’s coming just 10 seconds apart. She had her first at 10:11 of the second, and then, after winning the face-off, brought it back in for another goal after taking the defenseman wide. Lennon, Cronin, Petrillo, Duffy, Cosby and freshman Cori Donahue scored the others.
 

Read “WHS girls’ hockey enters first tourney” on the Wicked Local Walpole website