GRATTON, BLISS LEAD COMETS OVER COUGARHAWKS IN PINK GAME
By ANTHONY LABOR JR.
ST. ALBANS – Despite the BFA-St. Albans girls hockey team having a big shot advantage during its game against CVU/MMU, the score was all tied after the second period.
Entering the third period on the powerplay, Caroline Bliss picked up a goal with Jodie Gratton following it up with a score 30 seconds later as the Comets came away with a 3-1 victory over the CougarHawks for their Pink the Rink game to raise money in the fight against cancer.
“We had some good opportunities earlier in the game on the powerplay, but we finally broke through with one to start the third,” said Cioffi. “I thought we did a good job of just getting the puck on the net and keeping things simple. Scoring that goal early increased our momentum and just kept going from there and I thought all of our groups that went out played well.”
With 11 penalties called throughout the course of the game, it was tough for either side to get in its groove. BFA finished the game getting called for six penalties and allowed only one powerplay goal.
“I think just having so many penalties took both teams out of the rhythm, but we were fortunate enough to have a good penalty kill again tonight,” said BFA coach Luke Cioffi. “It wasn’t the same group of kids every time, so we had fresh legs out there which our depth allows us to do.”
BFA entered the third period with 47 seconds remaining on a powerplay. It wasted no time, as Bliss (one goal, two assists) scored on a rebound less than 30 seconds into the period to make it 2-1. Sophie Zemianek was credited with the assist to extend her point streak to eight games.
Gratton (two goals) wasted no time capitalizing on the momentum off of Bliss’ goal. She skated the puck deep into the offensive zone and put a shot top shelf to make it a 3-1 game. Bliss was credited with the assist on the goal.
“We had some good opportunities earlier in the game on the powerplay, but we finally broke through with one to start the third,” said Cioffi. “I thought we did a good job of just getting the puck on the net and keeping things simple. Scoring that goal early increased our momentum and just kept going from there and I thought all of our groups that went out played well.”
Both teams continued to battle defensively and didn’t budge the rest of the way.
CougarHawks goalie Grace Ferguson did everything she could to keep her team in the game making a lot of nice saves and not giving up many rebounds. She finished the game with 37 saves.
“That’s probably the best goaltender performance I have seen from any of the teams we have faced this year,” said Cioffi. “She played well, she saw a lot of shots and I thought they did a nice job defensively, especially early, of not letting us get to the rebounds and when we did she came up with good saves.”
The Comets controlled the game in the first period, as they outshot the CougarHawks 12-5, but Ferguson stood tall as it was scoreless after the opening frame.
BFA opened up the scoring midway through the second period. Bliss skated the puck in the offensive zone and got it over to Bri Jarvis behind the net. Jarvis sent a pass to the front to Gratton who was there to snap it into the net for the 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later with CVU/MMU on the powerplay, Karina Bushweller got the puck at the blue line and sent a shot toward the net. The puck was redirected twice before finding its way into the back of the net to tie the score 1-1.
Makenna Montgomery and Erin Jackson split time in net for the Comets, as they combined for the 12 save victory.
“Being the Pink game, we wanted to get them both in there and experience the atmosphere,” said Cioffi. “It’s tough when you don’t see a shot for awhile and then all of a sudden you see two or three coming at you. Makenna made some good saves early on, and there were times when Erin came out and played the puck well. In a game like this, the goalie is just itching to play the puck because they aren’t seeing as many pucks.”
The Comets outshot the CougarHawks 40-13 in the game, but the biggest thing was they didn’t get frustrated after not being able to get one past Ferguson for a bit.
The Comets improved to 18-0 with the win with one more game to go in the regular season. They have won in a number of different ways throughout the year with some blowouts, some very close games and some come-from-behind victories.
“We speak all year long about having that target on your back and every team we play wants to beat BFA,” said Cioffi. “We wouldn’t have it any other way. The girls understand that it doesn’t matter who we are playing, they have to match the energy of the other team no matter what. We have to play our game no matter who we are facing and work hard and getting better every day.”
Wednesday’s regular season finale against Burlington/Colchester (5-11-1) who they beat 3-0 in the first matchup.
Despite the SeaLakers record, Cioffi said the team is going to have to go into the game focused if they want to make it a perfect 19-0 on the season. They will be facing a quality goalie in Paige Codega-Ryan who made 39 saves during the quarterfinals last year when Burlington/Colchester upset BFA.
“We just have to play the best that we can no matter what their record shows,” said Cioffi. “Their goaltender is very good and she came up here and beat us in the quarterfinals last year. If we do face her, I’m sure some of the girls have the memory from that quarterfinal game tucked away in their mind and don’t want that to happen again.”
