COMETS BLANK KINGDOM BLADES IN QUARTERFINALS
By ANTHONY LABOR JR.
ST. ALBANS – It might not have been the complete blowout as it was during the regular season when the BFA-St. Albans girls hockey team faced off against the Kingdom Blades on Tuesday, but the Comets did what they had to do to get the win.
After topping the Kingdom Blades twice in the regular season in dominating fashion (8-2, 8-1) the top-seeded Comets scored two goals in the first period and two in the second and Erin Jackson earned her the shutout, as they came away with a 4-0 win over the No. 8 Kingdom Blades in the Div. I quarterfinal.
“Being in a closer game like this as opposed to a blow out forced us to make sure we are still on our game and playing the best that we can,” said BFA coach Luke Cioffi. “In critical moments at different times we bent a little but didn’t break, which was good to see.”
The Comets wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the first period. Rae Alexander sent a pass deep in the Kingdom Blades’ zone where Seneca Lamos passed it to the front of the net. The puck trickled to the open slot where Molly Smith crashed in from the blue line and took a snap shot that found its way through traffic and in for the 1-0 lead.
Midway through the period, Jodie Gratton doubled up the lead. Bri Jarvis showed off her speed skating past the defenders and flipped a pass to Gratton in front of the net who put a backhand in to make it 2-0.
Penalties started to take away any rhythm for the Comets in the second period where they had to kill off three. Despite the penalties, they still found two more goals late in the period. Annika Fersing tallied a goal (unassisted) with less than five minutes in the period before Caroline Bliss scored on a breakaway with just over a minute to go for the 4-0 lead. Sophie Zemianek picked up the assist on Bliss’ goal to extend her point streak to 10 games.
The third period was another tough period for either team to find rhythm with both of them being called for two penalties each. There was also a break in the game early in the third period after one of the referees got hit in the face with a stick and had to be tended to.
“We haven’t had a lot of penalties to kill lately,” said Cioffi. “A lot of different people killed penalties and it was a different flow in that third period with everything going on and just wasn’t a very smooth third period.”
The Comets outshot the Kingdom Blades 32-14, but were outshot 9-8 in the final period. Jackson was up for the task, as she stopped all 14 saves for her third shutout of the year.
“I thought Erin did a nice job, saw the puck well and didn’t give up too many rebounds,” said Cioffi. “I thought she handled everything she saw well.”
BFA advances to the semifinal round where they will host the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between No. 4 Rutland and No. 5 CVU/MMU. The Comets topped the Raiders twice by scores of 7-1 and 10-4 this season and came away with a pair of 3-1 victories over the CougarHawks. The semifinal game should be either Friday or Saturday at Collins Perley.
“CVU/MMU plays a lot of kids and Rutland is probably more experienced with the seniors they have on that team,” said Cioffi. “Where we are at, we want to just focus on us and continue to play the best that we can going forward.”
