Flash Flurry of Goals Leads LHS Girls Hockey Past Stoneham

Should a spectator have taken their eyes off the ice for a just a minute they may have missed it, because that’s all it took for the  girls’ hockey team to take full control against Stoneham High School. Literally.

The Middlesex League matchup was tied 2-all with 9 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in the third period. By the time 7:59 rolled around, the Minutemen had taken a commanding three-goal lead.

Lexington went on to win 6-3 before about 75 fans at the Hayden Recreation Centre’s John P. Chase Skating Facility on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

“It seems like when we do that, it always comes in flurries within a minute,” Lexington coach Amanda Ciarletta said of her team’s flurry of goals. “We just keep running with the same kids because we feel that they’re hot.”

The Minutemen (12-1-2) held a 2-1 lead entering the third period, but Stoneham’s Colleen O’Quinn scored just 1:29 into the stanza to tie it at 2-apiece. She collected a loose puck off a rebound and beat LHS goalie Cristina DiGiovanni with a wrist shot.

It was the Spartans’ second straight goal, after falling behind 2-0 through the first two periods. Just then it appeared Stoneham (7-5-1) was gathering momentum to make an upset bid over the red-hot Minutemen.

But instead of get them down, Stoneham’s rally seemed to energize the Minutemen.

“I think we were just more determined to get it done,” Ciarletta said. “We weren’t going to let them come into our place and take the game away from us.”

The game would remain tied for just under a minute and a half. With 9:03 to play, Lexington senior quad-captain Meghan McNabb skated from left to right in the high slot and fired off a slap shot that rattled into the net. The assist went to junior Katy DelGreco.

Stoneham goalie Jillian Harrington got a piece of the shot, but not enough to stop it.

Harrington barely had time to recover before Lexington was charging again. At 8:19, junior Nicole Maher gave the Minutemen a two-goal cushion. Sophomore Jackie Denning earned the assist.

Just 20 seconds later, at 7:59, DelGreco added to the onslaught off an assist from senior quad-captain Elise Cormier. It was her second goal of the night.

By then, all the momentum built by Stoneham’s comeback had vanished. Lexington went from back against the wall to the driver’s seat in the blink of an eye.

It wouldn’t be hard to believe a spectator grabbing a drink from the concession stand, or even checking the roster to see who scored the last goal, would be confused when turning their attention back to the action. After the game, Stoneham coach Sara Swett-Zizzo wasn’t sure she even knew what happened in that 1:04 of play.

“When we tied it up, at that point, I really thought we had put Lexington back on their heels,” she said. “But again (that minute), I don’t really know what happened to us. Again, they took full advantage of us, but I thought we played with heart until the end of the game.”

The Spartans certainly didn’t lie down following the Lexington blitz. Less than 20 seconds after DelGreco scored Lexington’s sixth goal, Stoneham leading scorer Danielle Phalon, a junior, scored her team’s third and her second of the night.

So, with 6:41 to go, the Spartans were still within striking distance, down 5-3. However, Lexington’s DiGiovanni may have seen things a little differently.

She made the Minutemen’s lead stick when she stoned Phalon with 3:30 remaining. The latter gained control of the puck in the high slot and skated in on DiGiovanni uncontested. A deke to the left got the goalie off-balance, but DiGiovanni still made a kick save with her right leg pad to deny Phalon the hat trick.

“Stoneham’s not going away,” Ciarletta said. “I think (the Minutemen) were just, not upset, but it game them more of a drive because they just put in those couple goals and we can’t let them comeback that easily on us.”

Maher capped the scoring (her second goal of the night) with an empty-net goal with 2 seconds remaining.

Lexington opened the scoring late in what appeared was going to be a scoreless first period. The puck squirted loose amid traffic in front of the Stoneham net and sophomore Sara Lehman was there to poke it into the net with 12 seconds to play

Katy DelGreco scored her first goal of the contest when her sister Danielle fed her with a perfect cross-crease pass. Katy gathered the puck and buried it into the top-right corner of the net six minutes into the second.

About a minute later, Phalon gained control of the puck in the neutral zone and outraced the Lexington defense. She put one nice move on DiGiovanni and flicked the puck into the net. Assists went to sophomore Lynn Kozlowski and O’Quinn.

Next up for the Minutemen is a huge matchup with St. Mary’s of Lynn on Saturday. Entering the week, St. Mary’s was riding a 91-game unbeaten streak.

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