WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The North American Hockey Academy (MA) and the St. Mary’s Rams (CA) were on a collision course practically from the start of the Girls tournament at the 2024 Chipotle-USA Hockey High School National Championships.
When the five-day tournament ended Sunday at Ice Line Quad Rinks, NAHA and St. Mary’s took their rightful place in the championship game.
The Rams put up a strong fight, but there was no stopping NAHA in its first foray into nationals, as it posted a 4-1 victory to win the title.
St. Mary’s, which came into the final averaging seven goals per game in the tournament, managed just the second goal NAHA allowed in six games at nationals.
Placed in opposite six-team pools, each went 3-0 to land the top two seeds for the eight-team bracket play where they won two more times Saturday.
“I think our defense played great,” said defenseman Grace Tullock, one of two team captains. “We were keeping it in the zone and our goaltenders played great as well.
“It was a full team effort.”
NAHA did not give up a goal in three games of pool play and allowed just 41 shots prior to the championship game.
St. Mary’s was much more competitive, yielding just a 28-24 shot advantage to NAHA and remaining within 1-0 through one period and 3-1 through two.
“St. Mary’s was a good challenge for us,” Tullock said. “We were preparing for them the whole weekend, knowing we could meet them in the final. We gaged that pretty well and it turned out OK. I think their team moved the puck really well and used each other. They also had a really good forecheck, so they made things harder in our D zone, but we still pulled through.”
Alanna Devlin scored the only goal of the first period. The forward commit had eight goals and four assists to share tournament points scoring honors with Kailey Favro from St. Mary’s.
“They were definitely the quickest team,” Devlin said. “They had a really hard forecheck and they kept the pressure on us in our zone.”
Quinn Taylor set up Devlin’s first-period goal with her seventh assist. She was one of four players to tie for third in tournament scoring with 10 points.
Cassidy Lobisser, another of those players, assisted defenseman Lilah Bauer for the goal that opened a 2-0 lead. Lobisser then scored her seventh goal for a 3-1 advantage going into the third.
In between, Elizabeth Huh scored for St. Mary’s. Abigail Richardson added the clinching goal midway through the third period.
NAHA defeated Southeast WEHL (WI) 9-1 in the quarterfinals and shut out Team Texas (TX) 7-0 in the semifinals.
Lobisser had a hat trick while Ally Cohen scored two goals against Southeast WEHL.
Tullock scored twice and Devlin had four points against Team Texas. NAHA had a 40-4 shot advantage through two periods.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.