The 19th Nan Rheault Invitational girls hockey tournament was odd from the start. With Dover-Sherborn pulling out due to concerns over the winter storm, the tournament field narrowed to three teams: Scituate, two-time defending champion Bourne-Mashpee-Wareham/Old Rochester Regional (BMW/ORR) and host Martha’s Vineyard.
Odder still, the start of the opening game between the Vineyarders and Scituate on Saturday night at the MV Ice Arena was delayed by 30 minutes because the BMW/ORR players took the Scituate hockey sticks back to their hotel by mistake.
The Vineyarders probably wished that the sticks had stayed put.
Once the puck was dropped, the merely odd turned into a nightmare for the home team as Scituate lit the lamp 27 seconds into the game, and tallied three more times to take a 4-0 lead into the first intermission en route to a 6-2 win.
The Vineyarders came out flat and disorganized in the first period, revived a bit in the second, and cranked up the intensity in the final stanza, when they potted two goals for their efforts.
For Vineyard Coach John Fiorito, his team’s shaky start was tough to take. “From the opening faceoff, turning the puck over, the effort wasn’t there; I think that’s clearly the most disappointing thing,” he said. “I think we all agree that whatever we did to lead up to this week or this game, we just weren’t ready to play, and that’s the first time that’s really happened this year. It happens during a season, but they just picked the worst time to do it. So I have to look in the mirror. It’s got to start with us [the coaches]. We had just talked about this, and I clearly jinxed us. We play pretty good for the first two periods, but we run out of gas because we’re not very deep, but we come out to play against good teams who are better than us. We just didn’t do that today. We never gave ourselves a chance.”
The Vineyarders won the opening faceoff, then turned the puck over, leading to the quick first goal by Scituate captain Sheila Dunn, who whistled a wrister from the point into the bottom left corner, silencing the large contingent of home fans. Christine Oar scored next at 4:46, sneaking a wrister inside the right post from the circle, and tallied again 3:30 later on the power play. Elliette Leahy added another power-play goal on a deflection with 1:07 left in the period to make it 4-0.
The Sailors scored twice in the second period, with Elizabeth Stevenson netting both goals, but the Vineyarders started to pick up their pace and win more battles for the puck.
In the final period, the hosts hit their stride. Vineyard defenseman Lauren Boyd put the Vineyarders on the board at 3:50 by scoring from an odd angle at the bottom of the right circle, and Lila Mikos picked up an assist.
Julia Dostal nearly netted another three minutes later, but Sheila Dunn dove face-first and slid across the crease with her stick extended to close off the open cage and thwart the bid.
During a power play with 2:49 left to play, in one of those “good things can happen when you put the puck on net” moments, Sally Caron slid the puck from the right point toward the crease and Hailey Meader redirected the shot into the bottom left corner for the second Vineyard goal.
With the painful loss in the books, Coach Fiorito is looking forward. “We have two days off, we have exams, we don’t play again until Saturday” at Nauset, he said. “We have to decide what we’re going to do the rest of the year. That’s each of us, from the coaches to the players. We’ve got to all look in the mirror and try to change something, effort-wise.”
Sunday morning, in the championship game, BMW/ORR won its third consecutive Nan Rheault title by blanking Scituate, 3-0. Chelsea Peterson, Madison Guinen, and Elsie Buckley scored the goals for the Canalwomen, and Megan Nolan made 23 saves to earn the shutout.