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02/29/2020 11:00 PMThe Amity-North Haven-Cheshire (A-NH-C) girls’ ice hockey team advanced to the championship game of the SCC Tournament for the second-straight season last week. Unfortunately, the Blades were unable to defend their conference title as they took a 4-2 loss to Guilford in the SCC final at Bennett Rink on Feb. 29. The Blades, who feature North Haven junior Kelsey McCarthy as one of their four core defenders, have an overall record of 13-8-1 as they get ready to play in states this week.
Sophomore goalie Julia McDonald made 39 saves in net, while fellow sophomore Maddie Epke scored three goals to help Guilford (16-5) claim its first SCC championship with its win against the Blades. Guilford came into the SCC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, and A-NH-C entered the draw with the top seed after winning the SCC regular-season title. The two clubs were scoreless until Epke netted an unassisted goal to give the Indians a 1-0 advantage with 3:55 remaining in the first period.
Guilford increased its lead to 2-0 when Epke scored another unassisted goal with 1:23 to play in the second period. Epke also drew two penalties during the frame, allowing the Indians to possess the puck on the power play for a good portion of the period.
Things got interesting in the third period. Guilford opened the stanza with a quick goal when senior captain Jaime Neleber scored from sophomore wing Daniella Vickerman to make it 3-0.
A-NH-C answered when junior Caroline Cadelina took a cross-ice pass from sophomore Nadia DiNatale and sent it home to cut the deficit to 3-1. Then with 5:02 to play, DiNatale scored a goal to make it a 3-2 game.
“I thought if we could have scored the first goal in the third period, we would have been in great shape,” Blades’ Head Coach John Peschell said. “Once we cut it to 3-2, I thought, ‘Here we go. This is it. This is our turn.’ But then Guilford went and scored another goal, and that pretty much did it for us.”
Epke converted her third unassisted goal of the game to give Guilford a 4-2 lead with 2:18 on the clock. Coach Peschell credited Epke for disrupting the Blades’ backline on several occasions during the game.
“Epke is Epke. She always does her thing,” said Peschell, who was named the SCC Coach of the Year. “You try to contain a player like that, but you just can’t stop them. You can’t dictate your gameplay to stopping one player, but we tried to keep an eye on her, and I thought we did a decent job of getting in her way. But she’s just a tremendous player, and it’s tough to stop when she executes as well as she does.”
Guilford had advanced to the SCC final by posting an 8-3 victory against No. 3 seed West Haven-Sacred Heart Academy in a semifinal game at Patsy DiLungo Ice Rink on Feb. 26.
The Blades made the SCC final by earning a 4-3 victory versus No. 4 seed Hamden-Wilbur Cross-Lyman Hall (H-WC-LH) in the semifinals at Lou Astorino Ice Arena on Feb. 26. The game was tied 3-3 when senior Tess Csejka scored from Cadelina late in the third period to give the Blades the lead for good.
A-NH-C struck first on Csejka’s goal from junior Olivea Kosh for a 1-0 lead after the first period. After H-WC-LH tied the game in the second period, the Blades came back with two goals to take a 3-1 lead through two. Both of the Blades’ goal in the frame were scored by DiNatale on assists from Csjeka.
H-WC-LH didn’t go away quietly, netting a pair of goals during the third period to tie the score at 3-all. However, Csjeka scored the go-ahead goal on Cadelina’s assist, and the Blades went on to get the 4-3 victory.
Krukar made 14 saves in net for the Blades, who outshot H-WC-LH by a 48-17 margin.
The Blades will play Guilford again when the two teams square off in the first round of the State Tournament at Lou Astorino Ice Arena on Tuesday, March 3 at 4 p.m. Coach Peschell said that he wants the Blades to play with a heightened sense of urgency when they face Guilford in states.
“We obviously want to come back and beat them,” said Peschell. “We can do that by scoring first and grabbing the momentum that we lost in this game. We just have to take it one day at a time.”