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The Woodstock Academy girls’ hockey team didn’t lose last week — unfortunately, it didn’t win either.
The Centaurs had to settle for a pair of ties including a 1-1 deadlock with Oakmont Regional Jan. 11.
It was not only that the game ended in a tie but also how it ended that left an empty feeling for the Centaurs.
The Spartans scored the game-tying goal with 31 seconds left. There is no overtime in high school girls’ ice hockey.
“I’m still processing it,” Woodstock Academy coach Jeff Boshka said. “Under a minute to go and a goal goes in; it’s a heartbreaker. I felt like we controlled the (third) period and played a good game. It was just a rough bounce.”
The Centaurs had the better of the shots in the first two periods by a whopping three-shot margin, 11-8.
Oakmont outshot the Centaurs, 13-6, in the final period and did see a good chance go for naught when Centaurs senior goalie Marie Gravier was shelled with three straight shots that she managed to turn away.
The Centaurs got the lead off the stick of Eliza Dutson five minutes into the third period.
The fleet skating Dutson got past the only defender in her way and headed toward Spartan goalie Ashley Bourn skating past her and putting a backhand between her pads into the net.
“We call that a ‘deke’,” Boshka said. “Sometimes, you don’t shoot, you just move the goalie one way and drag it across and you have an open net and that’s what she did. It was pretty good.”
The Centaurs came up empty on a power play for over a minute in the final three minutes of the game.
Dutson said a reason for that could have been that it was hot inside the rink which cost the team precious energy.
The temperature outside was almost 70 degrees which also made the ice a bit mushier and harder to skate on.
It also took away the normal 10-minute break between the first and second period as it was decided due to conditions, that the ice would only be cut once in the game.
The Centaurs were caught a little flat-footed on the defensive end in the first period of its game with Leominster, Mass., earlier in the week.
But Woodstock Academy made the adjustment and fought back from an early two-goal deficit to forge a tie with the Blue Devils, 2-2, in a Central Massachusetts League game.
The Blue Devils scored two but the Centaurs regained their composure.
The Centaurs halved the Blue Devils (0-3-1) lead when Julianna Buoniconti scored off assists from Dutson and Jade Hill with 7:27 left in the period.
It was the first goal of the season for Buoniconti, a middle school athlete.
Woodstock Academy tied the game with 7:23 left in regulation when senior Chelsea Willis scored her fourth goal of the season off an assist from Sydney Haskins.
The games with Leominster and Oakmont means the Centaurs have gone through their first round of games with their Central Massachusetts League “B” Division opponents with a 1-0-2 record.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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