Comets Hold Off Tide in Battle of Unbeatens

By ANTHONY LABOR JR.

ST. ALBANS – It was a battle of two unbeaten teams when BFA-St. Albans and Spaulding girls hockey team faced off at Collins Perley on Wednesday.

After the Comets took a lead less than a minute into the game, it looked like they could have been on their way to another lopsided victory.

Instead, the Comets needed to battle in what turned out to be a back-and-forth game on their way to a 5-3 victory to remain unbeaten in their first game against the Crimson Tide since the 2017-18 season. The Comets improved to 7-0 with the victory.

“I think we all knew it was going to be a physical game out there today,” said BFA coach Luke Cioffi. “Both teams are strong, both teams are skilled and it was a fun back-and-forth game with good opportunities on both sides.”

It was a valiant effort from both teams throughout as Spaulding never let the Comets get comfortable with a lead throughout the game.

There weren’t many flashy goals for the Comets, but they stuck to their gameplan and got pucks to the net and had five different goal-scorers in the game.

“A lot of the goals were just putting pucks to the net and on rebounds,” said Cioffi. “That was the girls working hard and getting in front of the net and being where they needed to be for the goals.”

It was a quality showing from the Crimson Tide as they continue to prove they are one of the best programs in the state.

After going down in the first minute of the game, Spaulding responded well by not getting down on themselves giving up the early goal.

“You hate to see one go in that quick, but the game can go one of two ways where you either feel sorry for yourself or you respond and push back,” said Spaulding coach Dave Lawrence. “We pushed back tonight and I’m really proud of the girls for grinding and never quit. I thought we responded well and that speaks a lot about our girls.”

Bri Jarvis got the scoring started for the Comets, as she picked up a pass from behind the net from Caroline Bliss (one goal, two assists) and flipped a low shot through traffic and in for the early lead. Rowan Howrigan tallied an assist on the goal, as she finished the game with a pair of helpers.

Spaulding (7-1) had its chances to score in the first period, but couldn’t get anything past Makenna Montgomery (26 saves).

On an extended 5-on-3 powerplay to start the second period, the Crimson Tide capitalized when Rebecca McKelvey (two goals) sniped a wristshot that found its way through traffic in front of Montgomery and in to tie the game 1-1.

Both teams went back and forth from there with BFA getting back-to-back goals from Bliss and Maddie Montagne to make it a 3-1 game. Spaulding’s Portia Berard tallied another powerplay goal to make it a one-goal game before Molly Smith added another goal 25 seconds later to put the Comets up by two.

“I thought we responded well after they got the two powerplay goals in the second,” said Cioffi. “We responded each time with a lot of energy and good puck movement and didn’t let them capitalize on any momentum after their goals.

BFA’s highlight reel goal game on the powerplay early in the third period when Smith put a perfect pass from the blue line onto the stick of Jodie Gratton, who was wide-open in front of the net. Gratton didn’t waste the opportunity and sent a shot to the back of the net for the 5-2 lead.

McKelvey added a goal with just over five minutes when she picked up speed in the offensive zone and scored on another perfect wristshot. Tewksbury picked up her second assist of the game on the play.

“Rebecca has a heavy shot and she had been working very hard getting it off quicker making it harder for goalies to save,” said Lawrence. “I’m just glad she is shooting for us.”

Cetin stood on her head for the Crimson Tide in the third period, as she made 15 of her 31 saves in the final 15 minutes alone to keep the game within reach.

“Mattie battled and made some big saves when we needed them to keep the game close,” said Lawrence. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get more goals out there.”

On the other side, it was another quality outing by Montgomery, who came away with some big saves in key moments throughout the game.

“I think Makenna played even better tonight than she did against Essex,” said Cioffi. “She was out in front of her crease a little more and she was ready for tonight. Maybe she would like one of those goals back, but overall she made some keys saves for us against a team that has a lot of snipers on the roster, so she came up big again for us.”

It was a quality game between two programs that had a bit of a rivalry between 2008 and 2011 when they met each year in the postseason, including meetings in the 2010 and 2011 championship games, which BFA won 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. After Spaulding went down to Div. II for a couple years and won a title in 2020, they returned to Div. I last year and continued to rise as one of the top programs in the state.

“It feels good to be playing in these games against the top programs like BFA,” he added. “The girls work really hard in practice and want to be challenged in the games, and these are the games that we want to play in. It was good to see the girls compete at this level, and now we just have to get to the next level to pull out wins in these games.”

It had been awhile since the Comets were in a game that was so tightly contested, as their last three games have been wins by six or more goals. Their last game that was decided by two goals was back on December 18 in a 3-1 win over CVU/MMU.

“In a game like this, we get everyone out there and everyone is playing with more focus,” said Cioffi. “We have been getting away with being a little bit lax in the defensive zone in past games when we had the big lead, so we were able to tighten that up with the close game tonight. These kinds of games are only going to make us better going forward.”

The Comets will travel to the Kingdom Blades on Saturday for their next game.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Comments

Comments