The Everett High girls hockey team enjoyed an outstanding week, winning two games and tying one, to improve to a fine mark of 6-4-2 on the season. Coach Joe McLaughlin’s Lady Crimson Tide now have 14 points and need six more points in their final eight games in order to punch their ticket for a Journey to the Tourney.
The Everett girls opened their week last Monday with a tight 3-2 win over Chelmsford. The closely played contest was tied at 2-2 late in the third period until Krystina Hogan broke the deadlock for good with a goal with about 6:00 to play. Gabriel Ramunno earned the assist with a nifty pass on a 2-on-1 break that sent Krystina in alone on the Chelmsford goalie.
Ramunno previously had potted the initial Everett goal and Brittany Delling scored the second goal with an assist from Alex Arvanaitis.
Two days later, the Lady Crimson Tide took on Marblehead and pulled out a dramatic 1-1 tie thanks to a clutch goal by Ramunno with 36 seconds to play after McLaughlin had pulled goalie Kristy Welch with just over a minute to go.
Up until that point, the contest had proven to be the Kristy Welch Show, as the senior netminder turned aside 35 enemy shots to keep the Lady Crimson Tide within striking distance.
“Kristy was superb,” said McLaughlin. “She kept us in the game and gave us a chance to get a big point.”
On Saturday Everett took on a strong Masconomet Regional team and turned in what McLaughlin called “our most complete game of the season. We played three periods of nearly flawless hockey at both ends of the ice.”
The contest was highlighted by Senior Night festivities and thus it was appropriate that the seniors accounted for the first two goals of the game. Senior Hogan lit the lamp for the first Everett goal, assisted by fellow senior Arvanaitis, and senior Samantha Rebello, assisted by seniors Delling and Nikki Martinelli, made it 2-0.
Nicole Flores then applied the coup de grace with an empty net goal on a brilliant end to end rush with 36 seconds to play to put the game on ice for the 3-0 finale.
The seniors, Delling, Hogan, Welch, Arvanaitis, Rebello, Martinelli, Barb Periera, Allie Battaglia, and Stephanie Chaves recognized their parents with a presentation of balloons and flowers to acknowledge their parents for the many years of sacrifice and early morning practice sessions at those ice cold rinks.
The contest also had a special and heartfelt significance for the honor presented to Kim Delling, who has headed the Lady Crimson Tide hockey Booster Club for the past eight years. Both the Everett and Masconomet girls shed their regular jerseys to reveal special, pink ribboned shirts (Everett wore white shirts, Masconomet had black ones) to show their support for Mrs. Delling and for the fight against breast cancer.
McLaughlin and his crew have a busy week ahead, hosting Peabody today (Wednesday) at 4:00 and Algonquin Regional Friday, also at 4:00. The girls then will hit the road to Wilmington on Saturday.