Flynn and Ganter named All-Stars
Published February 26, 2020
THE PLNR All-Stars earned an NEC championship and a Carlin Cup to close their regular season strong. They will look to keep the season going during a preliminary round game against Plymouth on Wednesday at McVann-O’Keefe. (Courtesy Photo)
PEABODY — The Peabody/Lynnfield/North Reading girls’ co-op hockey team collected a league title and a Carlin Cup to close out their terrific 2019-20 regular season. The 14-5-1 Tanners earned the No. 9 seed in the Div. 1 state tournament and will meet No. 24 Plymouth (9-7-4) in the preliminary round on Wednesday night, 5:15 p.m. at McVann-O’Keefe. The winner will play the winner of No. 8 Boston Latin vs. No. 25 Mansfield/Oliver Ames/Foxboro in the first round.
The team also had five All-Stars named in the Northeastern Conference: Lynnfield’s Jen Flynn and Reilly Ganter and North Reading’s Sammie Mirasolo, Jeny Collins and Jenna DiNapoli.
Last Friday night, these players competed in a series of on-ice events along with the other league team’s All-Stars. Mirasolo, who earned her second NEC Most Valuable Player award with a program season record 43 points to up her career total to 141, took home the fastest skater award at the All-Star game.
Earns league title
On Feb. 12, PLNR defeated the Winthrop Vikings in what would become another historical win for the program.
A very competitive and physically challenging back and forth game ended in a 2-1 win, awarding the Tanners their first “sole” Northeastern Hockey League title.
After two scoreless periods, Mirasolo broke through and scored from the slot to get PLNR on the scoreboard. Ella McTeague assisted on the goal.
Winthrop fought back tough and tied the game with 3:52 to go in the third and pulled their goalie with the hopes to win this momentous game.
Facing off in the PLNR defensive zone, Mirasolo won the faceoff back to Lynnfield’s Carolyn Garofoli and sprinted towards the offensive zone, receiving a strong “off-the-boards” pass on her stick and was unstoppable as she skated away from several Vikings and gently slid the puck into the empty net awarding her team its first league title.
“I’m very proud of the way my team came out,” Roach said. “We talked before the game, and we knew it was going to be a battle, Winthrop is a good team, they’re very well-coached, my team knew they were in for a challenge, and they came ready to play. We responded to every challenge whether it was a bad pass, a bad shift, or missing the net.”
Jeny Collins had an outstanding three periods protecting her cage and keeping PLNR in the game as she endured some physical aggression when covering up the puck awaiting a referee’s whistle.
Beat Fenwick for Carlin Cup
On President’s Da, at McVann-O’Keefe Memorial Rink, the girls defeated host Bishop Fenwick 4-2 in the fifth ever annual girls’ Carlin Cup. It was PLNR’s fourth straight cup victory.
It was not an easy win for PLNR as the Crusaders fought hard all three periods trying to comeback from a one-goal deficit.
North Reading’s sophomore forward Ella McTeague scored the first two goals for Peabody and was named Peabody’s Most Valuable Player. Her first goal was scored 10 minutes into the game when she poked a puck through the goalie’s legs on a rebound shot from Flynn. Her second goal came less than two minutes later as again, she collected a rebound from Flynn’s shot and lifted the puck over the goalies shoulder inside the far post.
Fenwick broke their silence and scored their first goal three minutes into the second period but PLNR hit the ice hard in the third period and Mirasolo scored 2 goals, assisted by Ganter and Chloe Shapleigh giving the team a 4-2 Carlin Cup victory.
Collins played another great game making 21 saves.
“I thought we started a little slow,” said Roach. “By the third period, we figured it out and knew we had to battle if we wanted to put this away. I am very proud of my club for continuing to respond after they got that (last) goal. They played us hard, so we had to play harder.”
GIRLS’ HOCKEY DIV. 1 BRACKET (MIAA.net)
