Christiana Akiki
Ali Baiocco
Audrey Brady
Caitlin Costello
Arielle Gallucci
Meghan Grifone
Lauren Longo
Alexa Lorillard
Helen Minervini
Allie Olnowich
Skylar Podvey
Emma Polaski
ColoniGals Take Bronze Medal at USA Hockey Tier II Nationals !!!!!
In the weeks leading up to the New Jersey Colonials 12U "White" team's trip to Nationals in Lansing, Michigan, the main topic of conversation seemed to center around which day to book the return flight from Detroit.
Even with the team's surge of success beginning with the uplifting win in the Charles River Tournament, through the enormously exciting win against Susquehanna in the MAWHA Championship game and the dominating performance in the Atlantic District Championships, expectations for similar results at the national level were tempered by the realization that the competition in Michigan would likely be the best the girls had seen all season.
Still, when the schedule was announced and the first game opponent turned out to be the hockey team from Darien which the girls had beaten twice during the regular season, hopes for at least one win were buoyed, and the possibility arose, though slim, of that win being enough to advance into the weekend play.
So, most families booked return flights on Sunday, and quixotically began tilting at windmills whose blades resembled the hockey sticks wielded by 12 year old girls from places like Fairbanks, Alaska, Glenview Illinois, and Greenwich, Connecticut.
The "Impossible Dream" began with a close but solid 2-0 win over the Darien Ice Cats on Wednesday morning. Amanda Reisman got the Colonials on the board early; her power play goal at 12:28 of the first period was assisted by Alexa Lorillard. Anais Tavolara "sealed the deal," at 8:07 of the third period assisted by Olivia White and Skylar Podvey.
Next up for the ColoniGals was the team from Fairbanks Alaska, the Icebreakers. In the most exciting game of the tournament, the score remained scoreless until midway in the third period when the Icebreakers indeed, "broke the ice," taking a 1-0 lead.
The Alaska team would hold that lead until nearly every last second had ticked off the clock...but not quite!!! Emma Polaski picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone with under ten seconds remaining on the clock. She crossed into the offensive zone slightly left of center and then broke back to her right, high in the slot. The shot left her stick with about 5 seconds left on the clock and settled into the net with exactly 4 seconds still on the board to the sound of delirious Colonials fan going wild in the stands.
The overtime period was scoreless, but the Colonials did get a scare when the Icebreakers almost pulled last second thrill of their own.
With just seconds left in the OT, an Ice Breaker shot hit Meghan Grifone high on her chest and flipped back over her head. The puck came to rest behind her, just inches in front of the goal line with an Icebreaker forward hovering right over it. The Alaskan forward pulled stick back to strike the puck and as she began to thrust her stick forward to knock the puck into the open net, the buzzer sounded.
The refs signaled "no goal," the Icebreaker fans groaned, the Colonials fans cheered and the game would precede to a shootout.
In the shootout Emma Polaski nailed her first shot. Unfortunately for the Colonials it would be the last goal scored by the Jersey girls in the shootout and the girls lost the game 2-1. Importantly though the Colonials did pick up a point for the OT loss, which at the time was very important.
The next morning, the Colonials faced off against the Glenview stars. The girls seemed to be flying high despite the disappointment of the prior evening and got on the board early. Just 24 seconds into the game, Alexa Lorillard scored, assisted by Amanda Reisman and Audrey Bradey.
The Stars answered right back just over a minute later, knotting the score at 1-1, and there it stayed until four minutes into the third period when the Stars took a 2-1 lead.
Less than two minutes later the Colonials answered right back, this time it was Lauren Longo evening the score, assisted by Egan Sachs-Hecht and Audrey Bradey. It was Lauren Longo again at 8:28; the game winner was assisted by Egan Sachs-Hecht
The win propelled the Colonials into the weekend playoff round. The girls ended up as the second seed from their division only missing the first seed by a "goal differential" tiebreaker.
So, the Colonials came to the rink on Saturday morning to play a tough Greenwich Wings squad, and the game was tough indeed.
With the score at 0-0 late in the second period, a physical, fast moving game, slowed down somewhat in front of the Greenwich net, but didn't get any less physical.
With the goalie down, and a jumble of players shoving and poking at a puck that most in the stands had lost sight of, everyone was expecting a whistle. It seemed though that two people in the rink hadn't lost sight of the loose puck - the official standing right behind the net who apparently could see it all the way, and Anais Tavolara, who alertly knocked it home.
The goal assisted by Olivia White sent the Wings to a frenzy. In the ensuing confusion over the goal, the Greenwich coach called her players to the bench. Dutifully, they all came, even one that really shouldn't have!
As the goalie crossed the mid ice blue line to approach her bench without a timeout being called, the Colonials bench called correctly called the infraction to the attention of the ref, who called the delay of game penalty.
The Colonials quickly capitalized. The power play goal came from the point, as Skylar Podvey took Arielle Gallucci's crossing pass and slammed it home for the game winner.
The Wings would score one in the third to make the score 2-1, but the Colonials smothering defense and the fine play of Meghan Grifone in the net shut down the high flying Wings.
So, here they were on Saturday evening, The New Jersey Colonials Girls 12U "White" team playing the Bay State Breakers, for a chance to play for a Tier II National Championship.
Now everyone knew that the Bay State Breakers were a regular season Tier I team, third place finishers in their Tier I conference, barely missing out on the opportunity to go to Tier I Nationals. And everyone knew that the Breakers had gone undefeated in their previous 4 games, outscoring their opponents 19-1.
Still it was the Bay State Breakers that lined up for the face off against the New Jersey Colonials Girls 12U "White" team for the semi-final game of the 2010 USA Hockey National Championships, and it was the Bay State Breakers they would play.
As the game started the Colonial fans were in fine voice and they nearly raised the roof when after a scoreless first period Allie Olnowich put the Colonials ahead 1-0, just 35 seconds into the middle frame, assisted by Amanda Reisman.
The pandemonium would be short lived, as the Breakers would answer back with not one but two goals in short order after Allie's score, but the Colonials would continue to press the action well into the third period.
It was still anyone's game until just 5:20 remained on the game clock, when the Breakers got their final tally. The buzzer would sound on the 3-1 score, but the Colonials knew that they had given the Breakers (who would be the eventual champions, beating the Susquehanna Rapids 8-2 on Sunday) all they could ask for.
The Colonials had exceeded anyone’s expectations, and they proudly accepted their beautiful Bronze Medals after the game in recognition of a great week of hockey in Lansing.
12U "White" Team Wins District Championship - Headed to Nattionals !
March 21, 2010. Morristown, NJ. Several weeks ago, when the New Jersey Colonials 12U "White" team won an unlikely tournament victory in Brookline Massachusetts, no one could have foreseen the effect it would have on the team.
The girls took a renewed sense of purpose and confidence into the MAWHA Championships a few weeks later and beat the Susequehanna Rapids in a 3-2 thriller to make it back-to-back Championships.
Then this weekend at the Atlantic District Playoffs at Mennen Arena in Morristown, the girls barely broke a sweat, beating the Midstate Golden Blades 11-0, the Quakers 5-2 and the Quarry Cats 7-1 to earn a trip to the USA Hockey Tier II National Championships in Lansing, Michigan, April 7th through April11th.
With every part of the girl's game seemingly coming together, coaches players and parents all look forward to seeing just how far this late season surge can take this scrappy bunch.
The 12U's will join the 14U "White" team in Lansing, and will be with the 16 and 14U Reds "in spirit" as they battle for their respective Tier I championships in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The 12U's wish all the "Colonigals" the best of luck in this exciting opportunity!!!
New Jersey Colonials 12U Girls Win Charles RIver Tournament
February 15th, 2010, Brookline Mass. The New Jersey Colonials 12U "White" team defeated the Massachusetts Spitfires 5-3 this afternoon to win the Charles River Girls tournament, capping a long weeknd of great hockey and lots of fun for the girls and parents alike.
The girls came to play and got right down to business winning their first two games on Saturday 3-2 over the pesky RI Express and 7-0 over the East Coat Wizards.
Sunday the Massachusett Spitfires came roaring back from a 2-0 deficeit to beat the "ColoniGals" 4-2, but it seems the disappointment over Sunday's loss just got the girls fired up for the important action on Monday.
In the semifinal game on Monday morning, the girls had little trouble with the host Charles River team winning by a comfortable 4-1 margin.
The stage was then set for the championship game, a rematch with the the Massachusett Spitfires on Monday afternoon in the Thorndyke rink. ONce again the girls got ou to an early 2-0 lead, but this time thery were not about to let it slip away.
Every time the Spitfire drew close, the Colonials responded with a goal to extend and protect their lead. Audrey Brady's late 3rd period goal gave the girls some breathing room, and Skylar Podvey's open netter sealed the deal on a 5-3 championship victory.
"ColoniGals" Win MAWHA 12U Championship
March 7, 2010, Aston, Pa. As it should have been, the two tops teams in the Mid Atlantic Women’s Hockey Association (MAWHA) under 12 “White” division met for the league championship this morning at the Ice Works Arenas in Aston Pa.
The Susquehanna Rapids winner of the regular season 12U “White “ title came into the two day playoff as the number one seed and easily dispatched the number 4 seed, the New Jersey Quarry Cats on Saturday, by a tally of 5-2. The New Jersey Colonials, seeded second, had a bit of a tougher time in their first round contest, edging The Long Island Lady Islanders 2-0, to advance to the championship game.
The Rapids seemed to have the Colonials number this season winning two of the three league meetings between the teams. But the pair of games played at York last week were hard fought and extremely competitive games, the Rapids edging the Colonials 2-1 on a late goal last Saturday and the two teams playing a 0-0 thriller on Sunday.
So, unbeaten against the Colonials, the Rapids had to feel confident and the Colonials had to wonder just what they had to do to score against their southern rival, having scored just 1 goal in the prior four meetings. All those feeling had to be a bit reinforced when the Rapids jumped out in front on a goal by Madison Riley with just over 5 minutes remaining in the first period. The period end with that lone stroke on the board, but the Colonials resolve had not quite been broken.
The Rapids brought the same hard physical play they displayed in York last week to the game this morning, but unlike the games in York last weekend, the officials in Aston took a dimmer view of the Rapids aggressive physical style and they would be called for 10 penalties throughout the game. The first one to hurt them came on a gritty power play goal by Egan Sachs-Hecht at 1:55 of the second period assisted by Lauren Longo.
Again with just over a minute to play in the middle frame, the Colonials found themselves with the man advantage. Again, like Egan’s goal earlier in the period, it wasn’t pretty - it was just hard work digging at a loose puck in the scrum in front of the net. This time it was Alexa Lorilard making the deposit, assisted again by Lauren Longo.
No one in the building thought a one goal lead was going to stand up in this fast moving game, but no one expected what happened just over 4 minutes into the third period either.
This time it was the Colonials shorthanded. Lauren Longo gathered up a loose puck in the neutral zone along the grandstand side of the ice. While everyone in the building was screaming for Lauren to “ice the puck,” Lauren had some ideas of her own. Breaking into the attacking zone with only one defender between her and the net Lauren saw something more inviting than the shot on goal. That something was Audrey Brady alertly bolting down the middle of the ice like a UPS man with a package to deliver to the back door being chased by an angry Doberman!
Lauren hit Audrey with a perfect pass, and Audrey wasted not an ounce of energy quickly and sharply “one timing” the puck past the helpless Rapids netminder. It was one of the prettiest goals of the year, and it gave the Colonials a lead they would not relinquish.
Still there would be some drama. With about 8 minutes left in the game A Rapids break away and Colonials take down resulted in a rare penalty shout that Cierra Siemasko roofed to pull the Rapids with one at 3-2. Finally the Colonials got a bit over aggressive and a pair of penalties resulted in nearly a full two minute 5 on 3 for the Rapids.
When the Rapids couldn’t capitalize on the golden opportunity, it seemed that the Colonials would have the day. A timeout with .17 seconds seemed to take forever and the last .17 seconds seemed like forever and a day. But, at last the buzzer did sound and the score was still 3-2 and the New Jersey Colonials had won the MAWHA 12U White Championship.
It was a great day for all the girls, coaches and parents. Meghan Grifone played her best hockey of the year. She was outstanding in Saturday’s 2-0 shutout of the Lady Islanders, and made the saves she needed to make to keep her team in the game on Sunday. Audrey Brady’s goal from an impossible angle on Saturday gave the girls the cushion at 2-0 to ride out the semifinal game, and her back door gem on Sunday proved to be the championship game winner. Lauren Longo’s three assists on Sunday set the stage for Egan, Alexa and Audrey.
Defensemen Arielle Gallucci, Christiana Akiki, Carly Strauss, Skylar Podvey and Helen Minervini, did an outstanding job of holding slim leads in both games.
The intense play of forwards, Amanda Reisman, Allie Olnowich, Caitlin Costello, Olivia White, and Anais Tavolara, made the scoring heroics of their aforementioned teammates possible.
The coaches should be commended for an excellent job, especially for the (now obviously) brilliant move of moving Audrey up from her customary position on the blue line.
In all, it was a complete “Colonigal” team effort, a great accomplishment by all involved.
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