Girls hockey extends streak with win vs. Sandwich

Senior captain Rebecca Eckler has been on fire over the past few weeks. (Mike Barucci photo)

The Canton High girls ice hockey team has been playing some of its best hockey of the season as of late, and that trend continued on Saturday as the lady Bulldogs skated past Sandwich 4-2 at the Canton Ice House.

“I’m really happy with how they’ve been playing,” said head coach Dennis Aldrich, who has tinkered with his forward lines and also added a few new drills in practice in hopes of generating some more goals.

So far, the experiment has been working as the girls have greatly increased their scoring output over the past few contests, combining for 12 goals in their last three games (2-0-1) after averaging only a goal per game in the eight games prior to that.

The overall results have also been better — the lady Bulldogs are currently riding a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) and have not lost since dropping a 2-0 decision to Falmouth back on January 9.

In the Sandwich win over the weekend, Canton was the far more aggressive team from the start, out-shooting the Blue Knights 18-4 in the first period and taking a 2-1 lead on goals by Rebecca Eckler and Marissa Devane.

Devane’s goal came with less than a minute to go in the period and helped to energize the home team after a fluky goal by Sandwich a few minutes earlier.

Eckler, who has been red-hot as of late, added another goal in the second period, and after Sandwich scored again to bring the deficit back to one, the Bulldogs refused to be discouraged and continued to out-play and out-possess the Blue Knights until Kendra Farrelly sealed the victory with a powerplay goal late in the third.

“We pretty much negated anything they wanted to do to us, and we moved the puck as well as I’ve seen us move it all season,” said a clearly pleased Coach Aldrich after the game.

Aldrich was also happy with the team’s effort and performance in a tough matchup against Whitman-Hanson/Silver Lake earlier in the week. W-H put up twice as many shots on net and led by a goal on two different occasions, but the Bulldogs battled back both times and came away with a 2-2 draw.

Lauren Fitzpatrick scored the first goal for Canton in the second period, and Eckler tied it again with a huge goal late in the third. The Bulldogs also got another outstanding performance from goalie Colleen Kelleher, who continues to put up eye-popping numbers in another all-star worthy campaign.

“There was every excuse to quit in this game, but the girls just kept battling,” said Aldrich. “And that’s a testament to this team and the player leadership that they have.”

Now at the halfway point of the season, the lady Bulldogs (5-3-3) were due to host Barnstable on Wednesday in a game that doubled as a fundraiser for the Glenna Kohl Fund for Hope, a local nonprofit that raises awareness about the dangers of melanoma. The girls will then travel to Duxbury on Saturday with a home game to follow next Wednesday versus Medfield starting at 4:30 p.m.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jan 27 2017. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.