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posted 04/09/2009 
| | U14 A Arlington Girls Mass State Champions | | |
After winning the District Championships and earning a spot in the State Championship Tournament, the Arlington U14A team brought a State Championship back to Arlington after going undefeated throughout the Tourney. When you get seventeen talented and dedicated hockey players together with two of the best youth hockey coaches in the business, good things happen.
These girls knew they were the best in the state. So did their coaches and parents. They just needed to prove it, and they did just that over the weekend of March 13-15 by battling through four games to qualify for the finals of the state championship series, and winning to earn the title of U14 girls hockey Massachusetts state champions.
Action started on Friday night with a 7:30 game versus the host Melrose team, at the Flynn Rink. With a few Arlington players battling ailments, the rest of the team had to step it up a bit and were able to pull off a close 2-1 victory. Arlington scored first when Mimi Saulnier took a pass from Shannon Hickey and beat the Melrose goalie with a nice wrist shot from the top of the circle with Hickey earning the helper. Arlington seemed to be cruising with a lot of pressure in the Melrose zone, but were unable to score when Melrose got an opportunity with a two on one that they were able to convert for the tying goal at the ten minute marker of the second period. Arlington continued the pressure in the offensive zone and Kaitlyn Morse was able to score the game winning goal after Courtney Sacca gave her a centering pass that Morse fired to the back of the net.
Back at Flynn the next morning, the Ponders faced off against Natick, and with Katie Cummings recovered and back on the ice, the girls were back to their regular lines and settled in quickly as Arlington dominated this contest with a 4-0 victory. Although neither team was able to convert in the first period, Arlington exploded in the second and took over as they were able to tally four unanswered goals. Courtney Sacca put the Ponders on the scoreboard with 8:17 on the clock after taking a pass from Gabby Tashjian who got the assist. Twenty-seven seconds later defenseman Taylor Norman blasted a rocket from the blue line that went high on the wide side of the net before the goalie even saw it, with Danielle Mallard and Shannon Hickey assisting. Kaitlyn Morse then tallied her second goal of the series with a hard wrist shot, with the assist going to Tashjian. Michelle Reilly then blasted the final goal through the net after converting a turnover in the neutral zone into an Arlington break-a-way that she finished with a perfect shot to beat the goalie.
That evening, the girls returned to the rink and faced off against a very talented Quincy team, and in a goaltenders contest, had to settle for a 1-1 tie. Arlington had a lot of scoring chances and many shots on net, but the Quincy net minder stood tall and turned away all but one shot from Danielle Mallard that found the back of the net with an assist going to Shannon Hickey. Fortunately for Arlington, the Arlington defense led by netminder Maggie Salmon, with help from Meredith Gallagher, Colleen Monroe, Gabby Newell, Taylor Norman, Emily Nugent and Mimi Saulnier, was able to do the same with Quincy.
Unfortunately, with the tie also came the news that defenseman Samantha ‘Mimi’ Saulnier had hurt her arm. After being slashed, Saulnier returned to the bench and tried to hide her injury from the opponent. Saulnier would end up playing the rest of the series with what was diagnosed after the series as a partial break.
Arlington’s undefeated record earned them a spot in the semi-final round as a second place seed in the American Division by virtue of a tiebreaker of goals for with Quincy, and they faced off against the first place National Division seed Duxbury on Sunday morning. Kaitlyn Morse put Arlington on the scoreboard first, but then the incredibly talented Duxbury squad roared back with three unanswered goals to take the 3-1 lead, which held throughout to the early minutes of the third period.
Arlington wasn’t going down without a fight and took over in the third period with 3 unanswered goals of their own while shutting down the Duxbury offense in their tracks.
Arlington earned a 4-3 lead, which ended up being the final score of the game. Scoring in the third period for Arlington were Meghan Olsen from Michelle Reilly and Shannon Reilly, Danielle Mallard from Olsen and Colleen Munroe and the game winner by Olsen from Shannon Reilly. The last seconds of a one goal game were tense and made a bit more so at the 44 second mark when defenseman Meredith Gallagher earned her first penalty of the season after skating the puck full force out of the zone and came up with a battle against a Duxbury forward. Gallagher stood her ground and won the contest, but not before sending a Duxbury player completely airborne in the process. Gallagher went in the box, Duxbury pulled their goalie, and Arlington found themselves in a 6 on 4 situation for the last seconds of this must-win contest.
As she has done all season, stellar goalie Maggie Salmon stood tall in the Arlington net, and with the strongest team in the state in front of her, fended off the Duxbury onslaught to take the 4-3 win and earn a spot in the state finals, playing Quincy, whom they had tied the day before.
In the final game of the five series championship contest, the Arlington girls found themselves up against the number one seeded Quincy squad that they had tied earlier in the weekend. Although Arlington dominated play, the Quincy goalie was nearly equal to the task, and Arlington was were only able to score two goals, to Quincy’s one goal, with both of Arlington’s goals being scored by Meghan Olsen, the first one assisted by Shannon Hickey and the second goal assisted by Danielle Mallard. Again, Arlington found themselves in a shorthanded situation when Olsen was called for a penalty in the final moment of play, and Quincy pulled their goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage. Despite the lopsided number of skaters on the ice, Arlington was able to keep the puck out of their zone and hold on for the win, and the title of Massachusetts State Hockey Champions.
This whole team owes their success to their coaches Tom Mallard and Kevin Hickey who have been friends and mentors to all of the girls, while also pushing them to excel to the best of their ability. This team has participated in numerous tournaments and won many championships over the past several years, but now they can all add the title of State Champions to their resumes!
Congratulations to coaches Tom Mallard and Kevin Hickey, and their capable crew of Katie Cummings, Meredith Gallagher, Shannon Hickey, Danielle Mallard, Kaitlyn Morse, Colleen Munroe, Gabby Newell, Taylor Norman, Emily Nugent, Meghan Olsen, Michelle Reilly, Shannon Reilly, Courtney Sacca, Casey Schaejbe, Gabby Tashjian, Mimi Saulnier and Maggie Salmon. Be proud of yourselves, because every one of you worked hard all season, and you deserve this championship.
Kneeling: Shannon Reilly, Gabby Tashjian, Maggie Salmon, Meredith Gallagher, Courtney Sacca, Taylor Norman
Standing: Meghan Olsen, Colleen Munroe, Danielle Mallard, Coach Kevin Hickey, Katie Cummings, Gaby Newell, Shannon Hickey, Mimi Saulnier, Emily Nugent, Coach Tom Mallard, Michelle Reilly, Kaitlyn Morse, Casey Schaejbe
