U16 Lady Pics Finish Strong
Entering States
Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008

The U16 Lady Pics finished the 44 game regular season schedule with a 21-18-5 record and because of the league (NEGHL) split the Lady Pics found themselves in the upper U19 division. Of which they finished with a strong regular season with a 7-2-1 record before entering the Massachusetts National Bound State Tournament.

The Pics had a tough first game draw verse the DEFENDING 2007 National Championship U16 Red Assabet team. The contest was very physical although the Lady Pics did not waiver to the powerful Assabet team. The final score (6-0) did not relate to the outstanding goaltending of Nicole Crandle who faced over 40 shots (the Assabet team ended the tournament and gained their 2nd straight national bid by outscoring their opponents 22-0). The score was 3-0 after two periods and the Lady Pics came close several times to finding the twine…BUT to no avail…

With this performance the U16 Lady Pics took on the East Coast Wizards and prevailed with a 5-0 win. Yet another solid goaltending performance this time by Melissa Rome and a defensive unit which dominated the Wizards and sparked an offensive out break which could have reached double digits.

With this victory the Lady Pics were scheduled to play the 2007 National Bound runner ups, U16 Mass Spitfires in a game that took on an unofficial “semi-final” atmosphere. The winner of this game would go on to the finals against Assabet for the National U16 bid. The Lady Pics carried a 1-0 lead throughout the better half of two periods and physically matched the spitfires hit for hit and slightly out shot their opponent (remember there is no “checking” in women’s hockey) only to allow two hard worked goals and one empty net goal with seconds remaining. Several non biased spectators later said ”that this was one of the most entertaining women’s game they had seen in this tournament” and “the physical presence of the game was equal to any level hockey game” they had seen this weekend.

Most of the teams(*) that the U16 Lady Pics had competed with this year are going on to the National Tournament.

Several D1 Prep schools
*Assabet Valley U15 & U16
Mass Spitfires
New England Blades U19
*Polar Bears U16 & U19
Springfield Lady Pics U19
Minutemen Lady Flames
East Coast Wizards
Bay State Breakers
South Shore Lady Hawks
Exter Lady Freeze
Mid Fairfield
Stamford Spinnakers
Northern lights U16
North Haven
Middlesex Islanders
RI Panthers
*Team Alaska
New Hampshire Lady Monarchs U16 & U19
*Troy Albany Ice Cats
Phoenix Lady Coyotes
Hamilton Ontario Hawks

The coaches would like to thank all of the U16 players for their hard work, dedication, courage and respect. Also, we look forward to a strong U19 campaign next year from our graduating U16s who were very much leaders and inspirational throughout the season. Katie Brewer, Nicole Crandle, Mary Fusco, Ashley Jaskula, Kelly Keane, Katelyn Landry, Keri Lambert, Samantha Schoeneberger and Ginger Starvish.