Varsity Girls Hockey

Uphill battles in Stowe for Varsity Girls

By Bernie Pimm
On the weekend of October 19-21, the Stanstead Varsity Girls Spartans experienced their worst weekend (results-wise) in quite a while as we lost 4 of 5 in Stowe, Vermont.

Despite an unbelievable 28-save performance by Julia McLellan, our girls gave up a late power play goal to NAHA White with just over 3 minutes remaining in what was a tough, tight defensive battle to that point. Sticking with it, Anfred Naud earned a tremendous breakaway with less than 2 minutes remaining to almost tie the game, narrowly missing on a great save from their goaltender.

From there, the Varsity Girls played a strong CEGEP Eduard Monpetit team to a 0-0 draw until late in the third, when, once again, we gave up a power play goal with less than 5 minutes remaining. The CEGEP rivals, the oldest team in the tournament, capped off the win with an empty netter and went on to win every game of the NAHA Showcase event. Despite losing both games on day one, our girls played hard, challenged themselves every shift. It was simply great to see Hannah Johnson and Jane Gervais return to the line-up after more than 4 weeks off due to injury.

On Saturday, our girls scored 8 goals over two games, defeating Northwood 5-1 off a hat trick effort from Alexia Moreau (2022) and a 2-goal performance from Audrey McCutcheon (2021). In a 4-3 loss in game two against OHA Tardiff, Laurence Frennette (Clarkson, 2021) and Tam Thierus (UNH,2019) were outstanding, carrying the team in come-from-behind efforts of 2-0, 3-1. With less than a minute to go, leading team scorer, Emily “Boomer” Eikleboom came within an inch of tying the game as the OHA player covered the puck with her hand with the puck on the line. A resulting penalty shot taken by Tam Thierus proved agonizingly close.

Sunday showed a desperate need to step our game up as we were thoroughly worked over by OHA’s other team, losing 5-1. Despite outshooting our opponents 27-23, we were out-chanced and outmatched, particularly in the defensive zone. With an open mind and deeper determination, the girls have returned for a hard week of practice and enjoyable weekend off before heading down to Boston to play the East Coast Wizards U19.
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