Recent News    W.C. East girls drop title game heartbreaker in third OT

W.C. East girls drop title game heartbreaker in third OT

Friday, March 12, 2010

By RYAN BRIGHT, Special to the Local News

WEST GOSHEN -- With eight minutes, fifty-two seconds left in triple overtime of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League Girls Division championship game, Haverford's Alicia Potts came from behind the net on a wrap around. Seeing a small opening between the post and the pad of Danielle Speroff, Potts jammed the puck on net. And in slow motion, the disc crawled lightly across the goal line, sending the Fords into instant jubilation, while shattering West Chester East's heart.

"I took it around the net and hoped I could sneak it between her skate and the post," said Potts. "Her skate wasn't on the post and I pushed it in as hard as I could."

East senior Allie Rothman echoed her team's emotions after seeing the goal cross the line.

"It was heartbreaking," she said. "Our goalie was stopping everything and we did everything we could to help the team win. There is not much you can do other than that."

Potts' goal broke a deadlock that lasted since early in the third period, as Haverford defeated the Vikings, 2-1, on Thursday night at Ice Line.

"The two teams played fantastic hockey," said dejected Vikings coach Glenn Mehnert. "The teams worked their butts off and were relentless."

The game could be defined as nothing short of a goalie duel. Speroff and Haverford's Chelsea Polidoro battled it out on either ends of the ice, one-upping each other's game-saving stops. At one point in the second period with game still scoreless, Speroff (56 saves) stopped Olivia Martin on a breakaway, only to watch Polidoro (28 saves) stop Rothman on three consecutive partial breakaways, to finish the second still tied.

"It was a goalie game, it kept going back and forth," said Haverford coach Kelly Winther. "I think they (her team) had it from the very beginning. I knew they were going to win, I just had that feeling."

At 13:11 of the third period, the Fords (15-3-1) got on the board first, when defenseman Kaitlyn Smith, unleashed a shot from the blue line. The puck redirected on its way to the goal, through the pads of Speroff and in, giving Haverford the 1-0 lead.

The goal sent a shockwave of nervousness through the East crowd, who sensed the turning point in the low-scoring contest. However, like she has done so many times before, Rothman stepped up to the plate. On the power play, Hillary Mehnert won the face off in the Haverford zone. The puck ended up to Rothman at the far point, who blasted a slap shot that ricocheted off Polidoro's left post, off her back and in the net, tying the game at one, less than a minute after the Fords took the lead.

"They scored on the power play and we managed to get one right after," said Rothman. "I looked around to see if I had a slap shot, and I did. I wasn't sure where the goalie was, but I just took the shot. I didn't see it go in, but it was exciting."

With two minutes remaining in the third, East (14-4-1) earned a two-man advantage for over a minute. But with some strong penalty killing and a sense of urgency, Haverford killed it off and saved the game.

"I thought my team could pull through," said Speroff. "We were playing really hard and we just needed one goal, but we fell a little short. It was a good game."

Despite having just five bench players, 11 total, counting Polidoro, the Fords never ran o ut of gas, even as the contest pushed to into it's sixth period.

"I was trying to pump the team up on the bench," said Winther. "Every single one of them wanted to win so bad in the depths of their hearts. I could see it in their eyes.

"This is amazing for Haverford ice hockey and girls ice hockey. The fact that we can come in our first year and work so hard with the little amount of girls we have and win, it's amazing. They proved how much herat they have."

Haverford 2, West Chester East 1, 3 OT

W.C. East 0 0 1 0 0 0--1

Haverford 0 0 1 0 0 1--2

W.C. East goals Rothman.

Haverford goals: Smith, Potts.

Goalie saves: Speroff (WCE) 56; Polidoro (HF) 28.

Via Daily Local News