The Northwood girls’ team boarded the charter bus with Dennis at the helm for a whirlwind tour of Connecticut colleges and three games against New England preps. On Friday, the team arrived at the frosty rink on the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall. They played a gritty and tough game, but had trouble getting pucks behind a strong Choate goalie. Choate scored first and Alyson M. responded with an end-to-end rush and deke. Despite outshooting the home team, Northwood couldn’t gain the lead. Instead, with just six seconds left, the Huskies made some critical mental errors that led to a Choate goal and victory. After the game, the girls recovered from the tough loss with a delicious dinner brought from Rachel L’s family and nice visit with alum Julie Devlin ’13. They then attended the Yale vs. Brown women’s hockey game. The game was the annual White Out for Mandi in honor of Mandi Schwartz with a fundraiser for the Mandi Schwartz foundation https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mandi-Schwartz-Foundation/234822126577275. With a record setting crowd, and a 3-3 tie game, it was a great atmosphere.
The attention to detail and focus for Saturday night’s game started early in the day when the team visited Quinnipiac University. Coach Seeley described his coaching philosophy and gave some great words of wisdom to the girls. Then, the Bobcat captains gave the team a tour of the beautiful facility and locker room. The Northwood players felt inspired and motivated after meeting with such dedicated 24 hour athletes.
After walking around the Quinnipiac campus and having lunch at the dining hall, Northwood headed to Connecticut College to watch the Connecticut College Camels take on Wesleyan University Cardinals. The Huskies got to see alums Jess Brennan ’13 and Hailey Sholty ’13 who are freshman for the Cardinals; both girls played great games. The Huskies then got back on the bus to Wesleyan University to play their own game against Lawrenceville School.
Northwood’s goal of scoring the first goal was immediately achieved when Alyson M. scored with a slap shot that beat the goalie’s glove in the first shift of the game. They kept the lead until the second period, when Lawrenceville scored a rebound goal, but the Huskies kept momentum for most of the match-up. After a 5 minute overtime period, the teams decided on a shoot-out. Nicki C. went first and was smooth as butter, beating the Lawrenceville goalie with a deke. Lindsay P. was tough in net, stopping the first Lawrenceville deke. Grace N. was the second shooter, and she put it upstairs in her sweet spot to take the lead. Lindsay held firm, only allowing 1 goal against, so Northwood came out with the win.
The two teams faced off again Sunday morning and the Huskies again scored first with an Alyson M. goal. Lawrenceville answered back late in the first and the two teams traded momentum for most of the second. With just 12 seconds to go in the second, Cassie K. picked up the puck in the neutral zone and turned on the jets to beat the Lawrenceville D. She sniped one top blocker to go into the locker room with the lead. During the third, the scoring opened up as Cassie scored another quickly and Cailey H. and Nicki C. added two more. Lawrenceville was able to put in another rebound to get closer, but the final of 5-2 was a comfortable win for the Huskies.
Northwood School Girls Hockey 