TROY, Mich. — The Vermont Shamrocks, including three Middlebury-area players, on Monday came up one game short of the 2017 USA Hockey Tier II 16-and-under girls’ national championship.
In a game played in Troy, Mich., the Anchorage, Alaska, North Stars avenged a round robin loss to the Shamrocks with a 3-1 victory in the championship contest.
The North Stars scored three times in the second period in their win, and those were the only scores the Shamrocks allowed in six games in the tournament, which began the previous Thursday.
On that day, the Shamrocks edged the North Stars, 1-0, to begin a five-game winning streak that landed them in Monday’s final.
On Monday, Middlebury’s Abigail Gleason scored the lone Shamrock goal in the third period. A defender and Middlebury Union High School junior, she was joined on the Shamrocks by two of her Tiger teammates, forward Lexi Bartlett and defender Kate Donahue, both freshmen.
Until Monday, when the North Stars outshot the Shamrocks, 20-16, the Vermont squad, including players from all around the state, had rolled through the tournament.
In the first matchup vs. Anchorage, on April 6 Elizabeth Hill’s late-game goal, assisted by Bartlett and Angelina Tommola, gave Vermont the win. In that game, Vermont outshot the North Stars, 29-13, and goalies Madeleine Hungerford and Leo Clark combined shut out the Alaskan champs.
On Friday, the Shamrocks blanked Livonia, Mich., 2-0, as Clark and Hungerford combined for 15 saves and Vermont launched 40 shots. McKenna Remillard notched an unassisted goal in the first period, and Piper Desorcie made it 2-0 in the second period from Peyton Dukas and Taylor Coburn.
On Saturday, the Shamrocks pelted the Utah Lady Grizzlies, 15-0, outshooting them, 77-1. Donahue and Bartlett each assisted two goals in the rout. That contest was the last in round-robin play.
In Sunday’s playoff contests, the Shamrocks thumped the Princeton Tiger Lilies, 6-0, in the quarterfinal round. Gleason and Bartlett picked up assists as Vermont outshot Princeton, 40-9. In the semifinal, Vermont defeated the Wisconsin Selects, 2-0, as Hungerford and Clark teamed up for 25 saves and the Shamrocks put 36 shots on goal.