Nine seconds after the blow of the whistle was all it took for the No. 2 Woburn High School girls’ hockey team to take over the game against No. 7 Lexington High School in the Quarterfinal round of the MIAA North Division 1 sectional tournament. The Tanners added two more goals to Lexington's one at Stoneham Arena on Tuesday night and came out with the 3-1 victory.
With the win, Woburn (20-1-1) heads back to Stoneham Arena for the semi-finals on March 13 at 1 p.m. The Tanners face the winner of Thursday night's matchup between No. 3 Acton-Boxboro vs. No. 6 Algonquin-Hudson. The game is at Watertown at 7:30 p.m.
In the first period, Woburn sophomore Kayla Smith made a “we’re here to win” impression at 14:51 when she netted the game’s first goal against Minuteman senior captain goalie Christina DiGiovanni. Smith took the puck—with assists by senior Siobhan Duran and senior captain Colleen Martell—and skated up the right wing, chucking the puck in the back right of the net, starting the game off on a very hot note.
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The Tanners were dominating in every sense of the game ending the first period. Its offense was catapulting down the ice for shots on DiGiovanni and its defense too, which was hovering over Lexington.
At 10:39 Woburn put in its second goal from close range when senior Alaina Schiano scored with assists from junior Bryana Harron and freshman Ashley Moran.
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Smith opened the third and final period just as dangerously for Lexington with a similar move to her opening shot. She raced up the right wing close to the net and passed the puck across in front, but her target teammate wasn’t able to receive the puck.
At 9:34 though, Smith was able to assist—along with Duran—on Martell’s goal, the team’s third, putting Woburn up 3-0.
Duran passed to Smith, who was positioned slightly behind the net at the left goal line, who passed from behind to Martell for the score.
But roughly 30 seconds later, seemingly just after Woburn finished celebrating, Lexington was on the board when sophomore Sara Lehman scored against Woburn freshman goalkeeper Courtney Davis. Senior captain Meghan McNabb recorded the assist.
At 3-1 with just under three minutes left, Lexington was fighting to tie with two more goals to at least stay in the game and force overtime. But Woburn didn’t allow it. The Tanners were racing with the puck, running out the clock, shooting strategically and stretching their arms, reaching their sticks out as far as they could to interrupt Lexington passes.
A timeout was called with 5.5 seconds remaining. But back on the ice the shot clock was dwindling and Lexington, scrambling for a shot, wasn’t able to score, and Woburn won.
