RAYNHAM – It was the final New England Future Stars game to be played for the 2015 season, but it was the first New England Future Stars game to be played with a Girls Varsity Champion crowned at its end.
Girls Varsity was the latest to be added to the league, the six-team division starting play this summer and concluding its first season this past Sunday at the Raynham IcePlex. The 2015 Marlboro Thunder forever noted in league history as the inaugural Girls Varsity Champion following a 5-0 victory over the Natick Chill.
Amongst the best teams the division had to offer all season, the Thunder, regular season champs going 8-2-2, and the Chill, the playoff’s no. 3 seed advancing to the finals with a shocking upset of the no. 2 Boston Brahmas in the semifinals. Marlboro had been in front of the standings all season and played as such in the championship’s opening period.
They were all over the Chill, but Natick’s defense and netminder Alyssa Cimino left few quality scoring chances to be had throughout the first and the opening frame elapsed with the score remaining 0-0.
The Thunder finally struck in the second, twice breaking through the Natick ranks. Morgan Perry netted the game’s first goal at 1:48, while a long-range wrist shot from Julianne Sacco made it 2-0 at 9:18. The offense was finally generating, while Marlboro’s defense continued to play strong, holding their clean sheet through another period.
It was a bit of a cushion at 2-0 going into the third, but getting leads against the Chill had never been a problem for the Thunder. Keeping the lead was where they had issues in the past. Thrice Marlboro faced Natick during the regular season, once a 4-3 win, twice a 3-2, overtime loss. Marlboro held leads in all three contests and all three times struggled to close out the Chill.
It was a different story the fourth time around.
“No superstars, everybody chips in and just keep rolling line after line,” Thunder coach Kevin Lane said.
“…I think for us it was all about depth. We did struggle with them in past games and it was games where I was missing a lot of kids. I know they were missing a few today and that worked in our favor because I had everybody here.”
This time around, they closed the door at both ends in the third period. Marlboro’s defense and penalty kill (a perfect 4-for-4 in the frame) yielded nothing to the Chill, no chances to swing momentum.
On the offensive end, the Thunder bested their goal total from the previous two periods by one as they rolled for three in the third. A great tip-in by Cassidhe Wozniak at 4:41 made it 3-0, while an equally kind tip by Perry at 5:57 made it 4-0. With the title all but secured, Maggie Roche added the exclamation point with her goal at 6:21, bringing the score to its 5-0 final.
“It’s the one dynamic that I couldn’t control, they all get along great,” Lane said of his team’s championship resolve. “I got a bunch of kids that want to hang out… it’s a tough time getting them out of the locker room after the game.
“That’s the one thing I couldn’t control and banked on. I did a lot of hard recruiting, but I didn’t know whether they were going to get along or not. It’s a great, great group of girls.”
The Thunder were a team and it was as a team they closed out their championship season. Marlboro had 10 different skaters credited with points in the finals victory, Perry (2G), Krista Flinkstrom (2A) and Kaitlyn Corcoran (2A) leading the charge with two apiece. The battery of Angie Ferro and Alyssa Lee combining to post the championship game shutout.
