WATERTOWN – The perception for the defensively loaded Notre Dame Academy of Hingham ladies hockey workforce is all the time that the objectives it must win will come.
Despite a clinic from Peabody/Lynnfield/North Reading goalie Alyse Mutti, that’s precisely what it obtained Wednesday evening to get again to the Div. 1 state semifinals for a second straight yr.
Two objectives within the second interval from Sarah White and Caroline Hartnett have been all that Mutti (33 saves) would enable, however they paired with one other defensive showcase from the No. 1 Cougars (17-4-2) to energy a 2-0 win over the No. 9 Tanners in a state quarterfinal at John A. Ryan Arena.
Notre Dame allowed simply 11 photographs on goalie Ava Larkin within the shutout and can face No. 4 Malden Catholic in hopes of avenging a loss in final yr’s state semifinals to Shrewsbury.
“We layered the ice really well against that team,” mentioned NDA head coach John Findley. “The (PLNR) goalie played great, she was awesome. … It’ll be nice if we could somehow, on St. Patrick’s Day, win the state title. You never know. I said to the girls, ‘Why couldn’t it be us?’ Just keep working at it, you never know.”
“(Senior defender Lucy DelGallo and I) have been on the team for a while now,” mentioned fellow senior defender Sarah Francis. “We’re really trying to get to the Garden this year and get the job done. It’s both of our last year, we really want to go out on top.”
Findley felt scoring as soon as would’ve been sufficient to edge out a win with how properly the protection appeared to chop off PLNR’s personal scoring alternatives, but it surely was a matter of how in opposition to Mutti.
Even when NDA peppered Mutti for 16 photographs within the first interval, she held robust to maintain the sport scoreless after one. It wasn’t till White and Devon Moore executed a flawless give-and-go on the proper wing that the Cougars lastly hit twine, with Moore organising White for the go-ahead early within the second.
Mutti and the protection saved it a one-goal deficit for a lot of the way in which to shut out the body, up till Hartnett’s go to Emily Coughlin generated a shot and rebound with 17 seconds left in it. Hartnett completed it off for the 2-0 benefit.
“I told the girls we’ve got to get shots to the net and just look for rebounds,” Findley mentioned. “And Devon and Sarah, they just put on a show on that goal. … We just had to maintain the level that we kept going at.”
For as stingy as PLNR was to restrict NDA to 2 objectives, the Cougars have been stingier – even with three penalties.
Defense has been the calling card for all of them yr behind Francis and DelGallo, so it was solely becoming it obtained them one step nearer to TD Garden.
“I just think we all know that we can trust each other,” DelGallo mentioned. “We’re all confident in each other, so I just think we build each other up.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com