Lakeville, CT – Taft travels north to play their last regular-season game against Hotchkiss School. Goaltenders for this 2:30 pm game will be Anousheh Mohebbi for Taft and Nikki Ferraro for Hotchkiss.
Taft opens up the scoring early with a goal from captain Brooke McLaughlin just over a minute into the game. Taft carried the play for most of the 1st period. Taft finds their second goal of the game off an excellent individual play from Ella Bates. She scans the ice, explodes into the offensive zone, maneuvering through traffic, and sneaks a shot along the ice with under five to go. Hotchkiss hops on their second power play of the game late, and Allison Sha has a productive shift, finding a seam and putting a tippable shot on goal to create a scoring chance.
The second period starts similarly to period one, with another goal by Taft in under a minute. Lindsey Kunzelmann is able to tip a pass/shot from the point from Bates that trickles in awkwardly to make it 3-0. Taft jumps on the power play shortly after the third goal and is able to add a fourth. Victoria Dudzic finds Olivia Wieners in front, and she uses her quick hands to beat Ferraro. Under twelve minutes, Sophie Um catches a pass and makes a strong power move across the crease to score and extend the lead to 5-0. Hotchkiss calls a timeout, and they come out of it with a bit more pop and pace. Hotchkiss goes back to back on the power play and is unable to capitalize. However, they will score short-handed with a pass to the slot from Alyssa Filmer to Emma Harrison, who releases a quick shot upstairs to break the shutout. Taft develops good zone time with around a minute left, but Sha pokes a puck free, and on the breakaway, she backhands one home to make it 5-2, which is how the second period would end.
Exciting start to the third, Selkie Brown for Taft dangled around a Hotchkiss defender and got alone, but rings her shot off the post. Um gets her second of the game by again testing the middle of the ice, and this time shooting one upstairs in a hurry. Shortly after, McLaughlin adds another goal with a shot from the high slot that finds a way through to make it 7-2, which would eventually be the final.
Three Stars
First: Ella Bates (Taft)
Second: Brooke McLaughlin (Taft)
Third: Sophie Um (Taft)