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Girls Tier-I 16U Notebook: Finalists are forced to hurry up and wait

By Tony Khing - Special to USAHockey.com, 04/08/13, 6:00PM MDT

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Overtime play at the USA Hockey National Championships is like the Stanley Cup playoffs. Overtime means sudden death.

When that happens in the youth tournament, the teams having to wait for a game to be completed might have a long delay.

Such was the case for the Assabet Valley Red and Shattuck-St. Mary’s Tier I 16-and-Under girls’ teams on Sunday. They had to wait for the Chicago Young Americans to win their Tier I 14U girls’ title game in a triple-overtime affair against the East Coast (Mass.) Wizards.

So both teams warmed up by stretching, running or playing with a soccer ball. Then they got partially dressed, then fully dressed, leaned against the boards to watch the other game, went back in the locker room and so on.

Just a lot of standing and sitting for what seemed like forever.

“That was frustrating,” Shattuck-St. Mary’s coach Pete Johnson said. “But we’ve talked about preparation before the game. How do you handle yourself before you come to the rink. [Go] put your sticks away when you come to the rink and get yourself organized. But they’re young girls and they’re experiencing this for the first time. There’s nothing we could’ve done about it.”

Team bonding

Many teams at all levels of hockey do something in the postseason to promote team unity. Shattuck-St. Mary’s was no exception.

Each of the Shattuck players wore a long-sleeve black T-shirt that had the school’s nickname on the front in green and their last name and sweater number in white on the back along with a saying in white on the back tail:  “Every game, every shift, stand shoulder-to-shoulder. OWN THE MOMENT.”

The idea for the T-shirts came from forward Audrey Warner.

Wishful thinking

While the Assabet players were standing in line by the boards to hit the ice for their championship game, many of the players were looking at the Chicago Young Americans showing off their gold plate for winning the girls Tier I 14U national title.

The sight of this prompted Assabet’s Caitrin Lonergan to say a few times to her teammates, “Stare at the gold. That’s what we want.”

If it wasn’t for those two third period goals by Shattuck …

Name dropper

The New Jersey Colonials survived pool play but didn’t get to the semifinals.

If they had, there could’ve been a championship game sighting of Shelley Looney.

Name sound familiar? The former Team USA forward, now 41, won two Olympic medals — including gold at the 1998 Winter Games, when women’s ice hockey made its Olympic debut. These days, Looney is listed as an assistant coach for the Colonials Tier I 16U team.

The pool play leader board

Lonergan shared the pool play scoring lead with Bailey Coyne of Chicago Mission and Shattuck’s Brooke Boquist with seven points. Chicago Mission’s Bailey Larson and Shattuck’s Hanna England topped the goal scoring with five each. Coyne and Boquist each had five helpers.

Shattuck’s Megan DuBois was the top goaltender, stopping all 30 shots she faced in 101:30.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.