FRAMINGHAM — One is a senior. One is a freshman. Together on Sunday night time at Loring Arena, they propelled the St. Mary’s women hockey workforce to a return engagement at TD Garden.
Gianna Tringale made 36 saves and Bella Freitas scored 3:43 into the primary sudden dying extra time interval to offer the Spartans a 2-1 win over a gritty and recreation Archbishop Williams workforce.
St. Mary’s (22-3-1) will now face No.1 Notre Dame (Hingham) subsequent Sunday for the state championship.
“Williams gave us everything they had and for the first two periods really outplayed us,” Spartans coach Frank Pagliuca mentioned. “But I can’t say enough about this group. For us to get back to the Garden with what we lost is a tremendous accomplishment.”
Tringale, who got here into this her senior season having by no means began a recreation, shone underneath excessive strain on Sunday. With her counterpart, Kate McLeish, holding issues down at her finish of the ice, it was as much as Tringale to assist the Spartans stem the tide of a motivated Bishops workforce.
“I just had to trust my team,” Tringale mentioned.
Williams (12-11-2) dominated many of the first half-hour as they held St. Mary’s to solely 10 photographs on internet. Tringale, in the meantime, needed to cease a bevy of high quality possibilities in holding the sport scoreless heading to the third.
“Gianna was just outstanding,” Pagliuca mentioned. “We really needed that senior leadership and she stepped up and did an amazing job.”
In want of one thing to get its potent offense going, the Spartans received it through a 5-on-3 energy play early within the last interval. Williams killed the primary penalty however not the second as Alyssa Norden deflected Freitas’ shot from the left circle previous McLeish for a 1-0 lead at 5:41.
“That first goal really picked us up,” Freitas mentioned.
If it picked up the Spartans, it did the identical factor for Williams. It took just a bit over two minutes for the Bishops to attract even when seventh grader McKenzie Lima-Tower scored on the rebound of Caroline Batchelder’s shot.
Williams stored the onslaught going as they put 17 photographs on Tringale within the third however couldn’t get the winner.
After each groups had good possibilities to start extra time, Freitas put an finish to issues with one completely positioned shot inside the appropriate put up after taking a feed from Norden.
“Bella was really fighting it the first couple of periods but like any great player and to her credit, she picked it up in the third and overtime,” Pagliuca mentioned
Source: www.bostonherald.com