Lady Warriors Shut Out In Final Game Of The Season

It’s been a disappointing year for the Wakefield High School girls ice hockey team, and it ended on a disappointing note Wednesday night with a 2-0 loss at the hands of the Reading Lady Rockets.

While the Lady Warriors had a multitude of chances early on, it was the Rockets that were able to capitalize, as freshman Julia Stone slid a backhand wrister from her spot in the crease to the lower right corner thanks to a cross-ice pass from fellow freshman Krista Sorabella that split the defense five minutes into the contest.

Wakefield continued to get opportunities to score throughout the rest of the second period and into the third, but once again it was Reading that took advantage when it mattered, as sophomore Heather Toussaint tucked away another goal with just under five minutes left in the game to give the Lady Rockets all that they would need for the victory.

Despite Heather’s goal, she was probably not the best Toussaint on the ice for Reading on this night, as senior goaltender Jen Toussaint shined during her last game in the net, stopping 40 Wakefield shots on the evening.

“Jen’s been out backbone the entire year, she was last year too,” said Reading head coach Mike Golden. “It takes a pretty special shot to get by her, and even in the games where we didn’t show up, she’s helped keep us closer than we should have been.“

Perhaps Jen’s only error on the night came midway through the third period when her frustration with Wakefield forwards in her space finally turned into a shove of senior Nicole Loftus, earning her a rare penalty.  However, like the other three penalties the Lady Rockets incurred on the night, there proved to be no harm even with the foul due to Reading’s consistent effort.

“We’ve become good at penalty killing this year because we’ve had so many of them,” said Golden. “But they key thing was the hard work. I’m definitely proud of the girls.”

For Wakefield, the lost opportunities were the key take away from the evening for head coach Jack Foley, although there were other areas where he thought his team had been lacking during the game.

“We couldn’t earn a goal tonight, we had some golden chances in front of that net to score, but (Toussaint) just kept on making the stops, and you have to give her credit for that,” said Foley.  “(And) We didn’t move the puck as well as I would have liked to see us move the puck, we were a little sloppy in power play set ups in some situations we would have liked to. We needed to do a better job, especially against a goalie like this.”

Wakefield ends their season at 4-13-1, while Reading will take their 4-11-3 record into their final two games of the season next week against Stoneham and Beverly-Danvers.