The Hall/Conard girls hockey team hosted the Mercy/NWC co-op Wednesday night at Veterans Memorial Rink in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

A  desperate team with nothing to lose and everything to gain is a dangerous opponent. The Hall/Conard girls hockey team found that out Wednesday night when they fell 2-1 to Mercy/NWC in the West Hartford team’s final regular season home game.

Mercy improved to one game below .500 with the win as it began a slate of five games in seven days including games against the No. 3-, 5-, 6-, and 8-ranked teams in the state. For Hall/Conard, it was a disappointing ending to a very good regular season. After dropping its first two games, H/C had won 11 straight, and then lost two of its final four games.

The host team nearly got the game’s first goal 5:00 in when Teagan Cohane came in off the point with the puck but had her stick lifted by a Mercy defender just as she got ready to snap off a shot. Fifteen seconds later it was H/C goalie Lauren Busi coming up big in net when she controlled a shot from right in front to keep it scoreless. Two minutes later it was Cohane again, but this time her shot was saved and the rebound slid past a teammate at the post.

With 1:04 to go in the opener Cohane took a penalty and put Mercy on the power play, and the visitors scored the game’s first goal. Lena Trojanowski was in tight on Busi and managed to knock in the puck off an assist from Lellani Duong-Vasquez.

The game opened up a bit in the second when the two teams took a combined four penalties in less than seven minutes resulting in power play and 4-on-4 for each. The first big save came from Busi in a 5-on-4 opportunity to Mercy/NWC when she blockered down a point shot and covered the loose rebound just ahead of a rebound try. Less than a minute later she was back at it, again using the blocker and covering the rebound.

At the other end, Mia Mulhern was pitching a shutout with her quick side-to-side movement to take away scoring chances for Hall/Conard. Her best may have come with just :30 to play when Paige Sweney found a streaking Cohane whose one-timer was blocked by Mulhern’s pad to keep it 1-0 after 30:00 of play.

Through two periods both goalies were kept busy – Busi with 22 saves and Mulhern facing 20 shots.

Hall/Conard came out fully charged looking to get back in the game in the third period. Sweeney had the first good chance just under 90 seconds in when she picked up a bad clearing pass by Mercy/NWC at the blue line and came in on Mulhern. Sweeney went low and Mulhern was there with her pad to keep it out of the net. Seventeen seconds later, Mercy/NWC doubled its lead off an offensive zone face-off.

The visitors  had several more good chances on goal, but Busi was equal. At the other end of the ice, Mulhern was being tested by a relentless attack. First it was Avery Wolfe battling for and winning the puck behind the net and finding Mia Nazare crashing the net, but Mulhern once again was there.

The most spectacular play came just over under halfway through the third as Hall/Conard was owning the offensive part of the game. Cohane came off the right side with a loose puck and skated across the front of Mulhern’s crease towards the far post. With the attacker stretched out on her backhand, Mulhern managed to get far enough across to leave no space and the shot hit the post and slid wide.

Moments later H/C finally managed to get one past Mulhern when Fiona Campbell converted the pass from Avery Salsted to make it 2-1 with a little over half the period left to play. H/C would get a big chance to tie things up when Sweeney was tripped by Alyson Low as Sweeney brought the puck across the Mercy/NWC blue line. Once again it was Mulhern and the Mercy/NWC defense managing to keep the puck out of their net and protect the lead.

Hall/Conard would pull Busi was just about 1 minute to play for the extra skater, but they could not find the back of the net, setting off a celebration on the bench and ice.

“Hockey can be streaky,” said Hall/Conard coach Jared Cohane after the loss. “We had opportunities we missed and their goalie made some saves.”

Hall/Conard came into the game ranked No. 4 in the state and finished the regular season 14-5. They will make the State Tournament and could even host an early game. They are also waiting to see if they have done enough to make it to the CCC Tournament as well by finishing in the top four spots in the CCC. After play on Wednesday, they and Mercy/NWC were each 5-4 in conference play with a large lead over the next team. H/C currently holds the tie breaker in scoring over Mercy/NWC.

Play begins on the 26th with the semifinals and the finals follow on the 28th at Trinity. Hall/Conard needs to find the things that helped them during their impressive 11-game run that saw them go more than a month without a loss.

“Tonight was not a complete effort,” Cohane said. “The team leader spoke up and told the team they have to get back to playing a complete game from the first through the third periods.”

Game notes:

• All five of Hall/Conard’s losses in the season were each by a single goal, with four of them being 2-1 and the other 3-2.
• They outscored opponents 57-22, posting six shutouts and not having been shut out during the season.
• In their 19 games, they never allowed more than three goals (twice), surrendering a single goal in six games and two goals  in five games.
• Hall/Conard went to overtime just once during the season and beat Avon 1-0 on Jan. 15.
• This is the first season for head coach Jared Cohane, and the staff of McKenna Gernander and Jenny Mancini working behind the bench together.

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