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The Winchester High School girls hockey team (9-10-3, 19th seed) played two close, competitive games to begin the Division 1 state tournament.
They beat St. Mary’s of Lynn (9-12-2, 14th seed), the defending champs, in the Round of 32, 1-0, but then dropped a 2-1 decision to Malden Catholic (16-2-4, second seed) last Friday night (Feb. 28) in the Sweet 16 at Malden’s Valley Forum, 2-1.
The Lancers have since gone up against Methuen (18-1-3, sixth seed) in an Elite 8 game on March 6 at the Stoneham Arena.
“We definitely saved our best hockey for the tourney,” said Coach Tommy Scarpa. “The girls came out with a lot of intensity against St. Mary’s. Our gameplan was simply to win every shift, and they stuck to the plan.
“I felt really good about drawing St. Mary’s, because we had a tight game against them back in January (a 3-1 loss on Jan. 20), and I knew we were capable of beating them this time,” added Scarpa. “It was a tight, scoreless battle up until 19 seconds left in the second period when Josie Chang deflected a pass from Chloe Goldberg past their goaltender. That’s all we needed, because our goalie Claire Zhang made everything look easy all game long, especially in the third period.”
The team’s confidence level was definitely soaring going into the Malden Catholic game.
“The girls finally found the extra gear we were looking for,” said Scarpa.
However, they came out sluggish in the Sweet 16 game, and gave up one goal before the end of the first period. The second period was a battle. The plan was to put pressure on the MC defense, and to keep the shifts short. Malden Catholic was only running two lines, while the Red & Black had four lines ready to go.
“We outplayed them in the second, and I was confident that if we could score early on in the third period, it would be a whole different game,” said Scarpa. “But we had a bad turnover in our zone that resulted in their second goal of the game.”
But Scarpa knew that his girls were not going to give up, and with just over three minutes left in the game and Zhang pulled for an extra attacker, Malden Catholic was called for a crosschecking penalty. Winchester now had two extra skaters, while the Lancers were shorthanded.
As the penalty was coming to a close, Chloe Goldberg came through with a great screen shot to the right of their goaltender to trim the deficit in half. Reese Bottari and Julia Legere collected the assists on the play.
With Zhang still on the bench for an extra attacker, the Winchester girls pounded the MC net only to run out of time to secure the tying goal.
“I’m convinced that if we had another two or three minutes, we would have tied them, because we were all over their net,” said Scarpa.
But in the end, Scarpa had few complaints. His team lost all but two games by just a goal, and a 4-0 loss to Arlington, which included an open net goal, was the most that we gave up this year in a single game.
“We were in every single game, but it appeared we also waited until it was too late to make a final (push),” the coach said. “Overall, I was pleased with our season. We didn’t care who we played, because we, as coaches, knew that we could compete with anyone.
“I kept preaching to the girls that we want to move up in the standings, so we could get a home (state tournament) game, but that wasn’t in the cards. But I still feel like we could have been a spoiler in this year’s tournament if we had gotten by Malden Catholic,” he continued. “We’re not quite there yet, but this postseason gave the younger girls, especially our five freshmen, an idea on just how difficult it is to get to the tourney, and what it takes to move on. They now know that they have to trust the process, and I know we will come back stronger and wiser than ever next season.”
All-Star goalie Zhang
When it came time for the Middlesex League coaches to choose all-stars, Scarpa said that it was an easy clearcut choice for him, and as a result senior goalie Claire Zhang is the team’s all-star representative.
Scarpa said of Zhang, “she played above her head this year to give us the opportunity to win every game, and that’s all we could have asked from her. She will definitely be missed.”
