CANTON – First-year Canton ladies hockey coach Nikki Petrich didn’t should think about how badly her staff needed revenge over Algonquin for beating them within the Div. 2 state closing at TD Garden final 12 months. Leading as much as a shot at redemption within the state quarterfinal spherical Thursday evening, senior captain Ellie Bohane was fairly vocal about its that means.
Mission completed.
Carolyn Durand stood agency in web for a 21-save shutout as her and the Bulldogs protection restricted among the best goal-scorers within the state as greatest as a staff may, propelling fourth-seeded Canton to a 3-0 win over the No. 5 Titans in entrance of a packed Canton Ice House crowd. Freshmen Izzy Cusack and Christina Curran every tallied scores earlier than Audrey Koen’s empty-netter, giving the Bulldogs (18-2-4) all of the offense they’d want to succeed in the state semifinals for a fifth time during the last six state tournaments.
They play top-seeded Archbishop Williams at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at Gallo Arena for an additional shot on the state closing.
“Being in the Boston Garden, all I could remember feeling was the terrible feeling – crying, just knowing that we could have won the game,” Bohane stated. “Getting to come back my senior year and take what they took from us, taking it away from them, (was) just really important. It’s just amazing because I remember thinking that if someone from the future could’ve came in and told me that, ‘You can get revenge on them next year, you get another chance to play them,’ I would’ve been so happy.”
Much of the offensive strain on this one belonged to Canton early on, which collected a 16-6 shot benefit via the primary 25 minutes of play. Algonquin’s protection did an excellent job of stopping high quality photographs off a bevy of passes to the center from behind the web, and Kaitlin Mathews absorbed virtually every part that acquired via in a 21-save evening.
Just 3:08 into the second interval, although, Cusack took a feed from Koen in entrance for the 1-0 lead. The Titans killed off two penalties via the remainder of the interval and located extra offensive alternatives as the sport progressed, however Curran discovered the puck in a scramble up the intestine halfway via the third to bury one other purpose for the 2-0 lead.
Heck of a time in your first purpose of the season, which emphasised simply how a lot depth got here into play for Canton within the win. Every participant acquired time on the ice.
“Throughout this playoff run, it’s been a blessing for our team to have so many different goal-scorers,” Petrich stated. “Our first couple games in the playoffs, we’ve had defensemen score, we’ve had freshmen score – it’s been almost a different person every single night. … Depth is huge.”
Algonquin discovered bits and items of harmful scoring probabilities within the meantime, principally via star scorer Emily Johns. Canton emphasised maintaining her large to restrict her, and even then, the junior nonetheless put six photographs on web – three shorthanded.
None of them may get previous Durand, although. Nor may the opposite 9 photographs the Titans ripped within the third interval in hopes of a comeback.
Koen, one other senior, put that to relaxation with the empty-netter.
“(Durand is) just calm under pressure,” stated assistant coach Kevin Cleary. “She’s a great teammate, she stays focused. … Any type of breakdown, we have her to save us. We try to do our best to limit those, but man, having a goaltender like she – we’re lucky to have her.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com