STONEHAM – So much for the dramatics.
Much to the chagrin of No. 5 Matignon, fans of the Longmeadow (WHS Co-op) girls’ ice hockey team were spared another nail-biting experience as the 12th-seeded Lancers convincingly upended the Lady Warriors 4-1 in a Division 2 tournament first round game Saturday at Stoneham Arena.
Longmeadow (13-5-1) received goals from three different players.
No. 12 Longmeadow (WHS Co-Op) celebrates an early lead against fifth-seeded Matignon in Division 2 girls’ hockey tournament action Saturday. (Photo by Chris Putz)
In the preliminaries, Longmeadow rallied from a two-goal deficit to force overtime before defeating No. 21 Falmouth 4-3. This time, the Lancers built an early 2-0 lead and never looked back.
“That was our game plan,” Longmeadow head coach David Pelletier said in regards to getting out in front from the outset. “From what we saw watching (Matignon) up at the Cape tournament, I knew we had the size and speed to get the puck behind them.”
Jordan Kowalski, of Westfield scored the game’s first goal for Longmeadow, her second of the tournament, with 5:38 remaining in the first quarter. Katelyn Joyal made it 2-0 just 62 seconds later on a feed from Madison Pelletier (Westfield).
“We started off pretty strong,” Joyal said. “I felt we were definitely more confident today.”
That confidence would be tested, briefly.
Matignon (18-4) pulled within one goal early in the second period with a breakaway score from Ciara Wall. Less than a minute later, Longmeadow responded with a goal, though, from Brigitte Goeler-Slough.
“We tried to play the smartest we could so we didn’t have to do all this extra work like we did against Falmouth,” Goeler-Slough said.
Joyal scored on a 4-on-6 with the Falmouth goalie pulled in the closing minutes of the game.
Longmeadow moves on to face No. 4 Methuen-Tewskbury (18-1-3) in the quarterfinals Saturday at Gallo Arena in Bourne. The puck drops at 1:15 p.m.
