In the NEPSAC Small School tournament semifinal on March 5, Rivers coach Courtney Sheary watched her team score a goal that coaches dream of.
In overtime against top-seeded Dexter Southfield, freshman Lindsay Morin drove the net hard on a zone entry, screening the goaltender and pulling the Dexter defense back. That left forward Britt Nawrocki with ample space to shoot, and the Middlebury commit calmly put the puck in the back of the net.
It was a selfless play by Morin and a perfect example of playing for your teammates. “It’s a coach’s dream goal,” Sheary said, “The perfect zone entry then turns into a goal that you want to keep on your scouting report for the seasons to come to show the kids, ‘If you do the 3-on-2 line rush, this is what it should look like.’ ”
That overtime winner symbolized Rivers’ cohesiveness, which was on full display in the Dorothy Howard tournament. The fifth-seeded Red Wings (16-9-2) won three road games, including a 2-0 win against New Hampton in the final on March 6, to finish the season as champions.
Senior goaltender Eve Stone was named tournament MVP after allowing just one goal in three games. The Stonehill commit said Rivers played its best hockey to round out the year. “I think one of the best things we have is our team chemistry,” Stone said. “We’re a very athletic group. We have a lot of chemistry, obviously. We really like each other. When we put it all together, we want to do it for each other.”
Sheary, a former standout at Cushing Academy and the University of New Hampshire, said her roster really started to click toward the end of January. Rivers ended the regular season on a 4-1-1 run to secure a postseason berth.
“Throughout the season you kind of find those lines that mesh together, those key pairings that mesh together,” Sheary said. “Our girls really found their game thankfully right at the end. We talked a lot about if we did get the opportunity, that we would have a good chance to get on a run and a good chance to win it.”
A strong senior class led the turnaround for the Red Wings, who endured a five-game losing streak in the middle of the season. Kayla Castellucci scored in the final and in a 1-0 quarterfinal victory over Lawrence Academy on March 2. Anna Miller scored Rivers’ lone regulation goal against Dexter Southfield in the semifinal. Williams commit Chloe Noxon helped create scoring chances as well.
On the blue line, junior Cailyn Murphy and senior captain Julia Finney served as the backbone of the defense, teaming up with Stone to stymie opposing offenses.
“They’re both unbelievable players,” Stone said of Murphy and Finney. “I just trust them when they’re on the ice. Being able to trust your defense is kind of hard to come by, but when you can it makes you play that much better.”
Once Rivers broke that losing skid, Sheary said the team started to put everything together and found its identity. It helped to have a group of nine seniors to lean on as the season progressed.
“We like to get the puck in deep, to go in and hunt and win those small battles in the corner and keep puck possession in the offensive zone,” Sheary said. “One (win) after another really helped the momentum of the team. We just started meshing at the right time.”
