Reading Beats Woburn In Girls' Hockey Showdown

With two goals and an assist on the third, it would be easy to focus on Michaela Boyle in Reading's 3-2 win over visiting Woburn.

But for Rockets' coach Peter Seibold, Boyle took a back seat in a win that lifted Reading into a tie with Woburn in the Middlesex Liberty at 12-2-1.

"Penalty killing," said Seibold, was the key to the win. "We play as a team. Michaela is a big part of it but everybody did their job. Michaela is a game changer and she had a couple tonight. But the way the team played as five is more important. The girls played well. They iced the puck a lot. Our penalty kill did really, really well. Our D played well, the forwards, everybody chimed in."

They had to, as Reading had three penalties in the second period at 2:05, 3:48, and 5:44, creating an almost five-minute stretch of playing shorthanded.

"We like to play five-on-five instead of five-on-four but out of eight penalties we had seven so we kind of let them hang around," said Seibold.

Woburn scored first when Maddie Russo's shot was tipped up in the air. Looking more like a short wedge onto the green, the puck went up and over Reading goalie Maggie Fennelly. It didn't take long for Reading to respond. Less than a minute later Reading tied it on Boyle's first goal, with assists to Chloe Doherty and Ainsley Cohen. It stayed that way through the first 15 minutes.

In the second, Reading made their one power play opportunity pay off as Boyle picked the top right hand corner with a nasty shot that Woburn goalie Katelind Ciavardone had little chance on. The goal was the 34th of the season for the Clarkson-bound senior.

Then came the stretch of three penalties, all of which ended with the Tanners frustrated. It got worse for Woburn when Reading's Sydney Conte scored off an assist from Boyle and the second period ended with the Rockets on top, 3-1.

Reading (14-2-1 overall) began the third period with two more penalties and again the Rockets' penalty kill kept Woburn off the board. But with 2:49 left, junior forward Georgie Santullo cut the margin to 3-2 with assists to Russo and Brianna Jewett. Woburn (16-2-1 overall) kept up the pressure and thought it had scored the equalizer only to have officials wave it off as time expired. Woburn outshot Reading, 10-4, in the third period.

Both teams have one Middlesex Liberty game remaining before the MIAA tournament.