PEABODY — For 25 minutes, visiting Marblehead’s freshman goalie Scarlet Lee was giving the Peabody/Lynnfield/North Reading girls hockey team fits. While PLNR dominated possession, controlled the pace of play, and peppered Lee with one shot after another, the shot-stopper was more than up to the task to keep her team in a scoreless tie.
But as good teams do, PLNR finally broke through, scoring two goals in a little more than a 30-second span late in the second period to take a 2-0 lead into the final 15 minutes.
PLNR broke the game wide open early in the third on another pair of quick goals in under a minute, then added one more late to seal a 5-0 victory. Catie Kampersal (goal, assist), Mia Lava (2 assists), and Maura Flaws (2 assists) led the attack for PLNR.
The win clinched the Northeastern Hockey League title, much to the delight of PLNR head coach Michelle Roach.
“I feel fantastic,” Roach said. “We’ve been battling it in the league the last two years. We’ve come in second. We’ve been battling hard and it’s great to finally bring it home.”
Despite the loss, first-year Marblehead coach Hadley Woodfin had some positive takeaways.
“Our record (2-15-1) doesn’t really speak to what kind of a team we are,” she said. “We work hard every single day and stay positive and try to capitalize on the opportunities we do have. We lost a lot of our top scorers from last year, so scoring is one of our challenges. We just are looking forward to some people to step up and put pucks in the net.”
After a scoreless opening period, PLNR had a golden opportunity to take the lead with a power play about eight minutes in, but Lee withstood a barrage of shots to keep powerhouse PLNR off the board. Unfortunately for Marblehead, shortly after the teams were back to full strength, PLNR caught the Lady Headers in a line change. Kampersal broke in alone. Her shot was stuffed, but Alexa Pepper slammed home the rebound.
Elini Spack doubled the lead to 2-0 just 34 seconds later, with Lava picking up the assist.
“That was a really, really important goal for us,” Roach said. “We needed to work hard and get those goals and be careful of those momentum swings that can happen after a goal. We had to keep pushing and were able to get that second one in and give ourselves a little breathing room. We knew if we kept pushing, we would break through.”
At the 9:54 mark of the third period, Ava Buckley made it a 3-0 game. She skipped a shot from the right point that got through Lee’s pads. Flaws and Spack were credited with assists. Forty-five seconds later, Vanessa Steinmeyer picked up a loose puck and swooped in around the net where Shirley Whitmore was in the right place in the crease and tipped it home.
Kampersal (from Abby McInerney and Jewel Mahnfeldt) capped the scoring with about two minutes left.
“That was a good goal and it was great to see one of our seniors (Mahnfeldt) get an assist, so shout out to her,” Roach said.
Lee finished with 58 saves, prompting words of praise from both coaches.
“She kept them in the game and she did that the last time we played them,” Roach said. “She is a great goalie who is going to have an amazing four years. We knew coming in that we were going to have to move her and put bodies in front of the net so we could get stuff through. She just played fantastic.”
But it was nothing new for Woodfin.
“Scarlet has been keeping us in games, standing on her head back there,” Woodfin said. “We’ve been working on blocking more shots to get the least amount of shots on her to take some of the pressure off, but she’s only a freshman and it will be exciting to see where she takes it.”
Woodfin highlighted the play of senior captain Ava Shultz, Paige Waldman, and Maddie Graber.
“Ava always brings a lot of energy,” Woodfin said. “Paige and Maddie did a great job defensively, always communicating.”
PLNR goalie Alyse Mutti wasn’t under much pressure, but took care of it when she was.
“Alyse is playing rock solid, so it was great to get another shutout from her,” Roach said. “She continues to rise whenever we need it.”
Both teams are back in action Saturday with PLNR (14-3, 14-1 NHL) taking on Medford at LoConte Rink (3 p.m.) and Marblehead hosting Newburyport at Salem State (7 p.m.).
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