WESTBOROUGH – Paige O’Donnell chose the perfect time to score her first career goal.
Despite winning last year’s MIAA Division 1 championship, the seventh-seeded Shrewsbury Colonials girls hockey team found itself eight minutes from elimination on Wednesday night. The Colonials trailed No. 26 Bishop Stang, 1-0, midway through the third period.
But the Colonials never waivered, and with 8:24 on the clock, Kealy Fay found O’Donnell, a freshman, who scored her first-ever goal to knot the score. Cheers reverberated throughout NorthStar Ice Sports, which was chock-full of Shrewsbury fans.
“The puck got out to Kealy Fay. She passed it over. It was just the perfect opportunity to shoot. I shot it, and luckily it went in. I just threw my hands up. I was really excited afterward,” O’Donnell told the Community Advocate.
The game-tying goal was just the start for Shrewsbury. The Colonials would control the rest of the third period, ultimately defeating the Bishop Stang Spartans, 2-1, to advance to the Sweet 16.
Shrewsbury, which came into the playoffs sporting a 12-4-5 record, outplayed Bishop Stang from the start, outshooting the Spartans 8-3 in the first period. Although the Colonials would continue to command the game in subsequent periods, they couldn’t break through.
Just three minutes into the second period, Bishop Stang’s Madison Lewis – assisted by Madisyn Blanchard – scored, and the power-play goal put the Spartans ahead 1-0. Despite outshooting the Spartans 29-14 over the course of the game, Shrewsbury found itself trailing.
But even though they were down, the Colonials were never out. The team remained confident through the adversity, ultimately leading to O’Donnell’s game-tying third-period goal.
“We just came in [to the locker room after the second period] and said ‘We’re still in the game. It’s not like we’re out of it.’ We said ‘Let’s just keep going. We’re not playing bad. We’re not doing bad at all.’ I think the captains really helped, just being positive and saying ‘Hey, we’re not out of the woods yet, let’s keep going’,” said junior Mia Ryder.
With the win-or-go-home game tied late, both teams gave it everything they had. In what was a frenetic last three minutes of action, Shrewsbury finally got lucky. With pure chaos in front of the net, Ryder managed to locate the loose puck, control it through piles of arms and legs, and tap it past the goalie. Ryder’s goal proved to be the game-winner.
“I don’t think any of us knew what happened. I just came over and my teammate Kealy Fay was just like ‘We got it. It’s ours. We got it right now.’ I was like ‘You’re right. We do.’ We won it back, I ended up taking a shot,” Ryder explained. “I know Lauren Albertson was falling in front of the net, blocking the girls, Blaire Fay was trying to hit the puck in. I just ended up pulling it back and shooting and it went in. The whole entire line got that goal.”
“Overall, I guess I was really happy with the effort,” said Shrewsbury Head Coach Frank Panarelli. “I thought we outplayed them all three periods. It’s just sometimes you need a little puck luck, which we had at the end… We got a lot of pucks to the net. [We] kept shooting from every angle… We outplayed them for the whole game and then we eventually broke through.”
Shrewsbury will face either No. 10 Bishop Feehan or No. 23 Reading Memorial in the Sweet 16. The two teams will play on Feb. 29 for the chance to compete against the Colonials.
Shrewsbury boys hockey falls to Arlington Catholic
The Shrewsbury boys hockey team, which played immediately after the girls as part of a playoff doubleheader at NorthStar Ice Sports, did not fare as well. Although the No. 15 Colonials seemed to control the match early, the team lost 2-1 against No. 18 Arlington Catholic.
The Colonials had a strong first period, outshooting Arlington Catholic 11-1, but quickly fell behind after the intermission. Just one minute into the second period, junior forward Nicholas Tashjian scored to put Arlington Catholic ahead 1-0.
Shrewsbury fought throughout the game – Anthony Nuzzolilo evened the score late in the second period – but Arlington Catholic had answers. With 10 minutes remaining in the third period, Arlington Catholic’s Dante Cosco scored the game-winner and put his team ahead 2-1.
The Colonials’ final minutes were unrelenting but unproductive. The team couldn’t match Cosco’s score.
“I thought we had a pretty good hold on the game. I thought we were playing the way we wanted to play. A little bit into the third period, maybe the 10-minute mark, I thought we looked a little tired. We started to run around a little bit more than we were. We got a lot of shots, but I don’t feel like we got a ton of quality shots,” said Shrewsbury Head Coach Richard Grant.
With their season now over, the Colonials were emotional after the game. The team, which finished 12-8-1 on the year, will graduate eight seniors.
“[I have] a lot of thanks for the seniors. I’ve had these guys since they got here, so it’s tough. That’s the hard part about coaching – it’s the worst part of it, you know? … The message is the same. I love them all, I’ll be around, and they’ll always be part of my life,” Grant said.
Arlington Catholic will face No. 2 Pope Francis in the MIAA Division 1 Sweet 16.
