Senior Bridget Carey scored three goals, including the first two as sixth-seeded St. Paul’s won the 2015 Girls Division 1 Prep New England title with a 6-2 win over fifth-seeded Pomfret in a game held at the Berkshire School.
The win was the first D1 New England title for St. Paul’s, which struggled a bit at the end of the regular season.
“Like many teams we were plagued by sickness and injury during the homestretch of our regular season,” said St. Paul’s coach Heather Farrell. “We had a of key players out of the lineup and did what we could for the last six games of our season. When playoffs hit, we were able to get many of our players back on the ice.”
Carey opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the contest, and then, after Pomfret’s Elisabeth Berard answered that goal with one of her own at the 1:20 mark, she scored a key shorthanded goal to give the Big Red a lead they would never relinquish.
“We were not a high-scoring team this year so our gameplan was to try and get an early goal on teams and compete for the rest of the game to sustain the lead and win games,” Farrell said. “We scored early, but gave up a goal immediately following. That was a momentum shift for Pomfret that we had to work hard to get back.”
Izzy Stoddard, assisted by Finley Frechette, upped the margin to 3-1 after the second period.
St. Paul’s
Pomfret didn’t go quietly. Just 1:09 into the third period, Berard notched her second goal to bring Pomfret to within a goal at 3-2.
“There was absolutely some panic,” Farrell said. “But, our leaders on the team calmed the group down and came out firing. We scored shorthanded which helped turn the ice back for us.”
But the Griffins would get no closer. Gillis Frechette scored a the key shorthanded goal midway through the third period to restore the two-goal lead for St. Paul’s, and then added another goal into an empty net at 13:16 to make it 5-2.
Carey completed her hat trick with a goal with 1:04 to go. She was named the Division I Playoff MVP. Senior goalie Kerri St. Denis made 26 saves and stopped 88 of the 90 shots she faced during the playoffs.
