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Shattuck-St. Mary’s Shuts Out Mid-Fairfield in 16U Title Game

By Justin A. Rice - Special to USAHockey.com, 04/07/14, 8:30AM MDT

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MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- Emmy Cooper capped her first season as the starting goalie for the Shattuck-St. Mary’s 16-and-Under girls’ team on Sunday by collecting her fourth shutout at the Toyota-USA Hockey Tier I Girls National Championships.

Cooper, who also finished the tournament as the top 16U goalie by not letting up a single goal, played behind starter Megan DuBois last year. 

Her final shutout of the tournament, a 3-0 donut against Mid-Fairfield, gave Shattuck its second straight 16U national championship.

“I just kept on playing, it’s just really exciting, I have no words,” the 16-year-old said outside the locker room moments before being handed the game puck. “I was just trying to play my best.

“Back to back [titles], I don’t know, it’s just adding to the collection now. I’m just happy to be on the team. We were much better than last year, so I had full confidence in my team.”

While Cooper paced the defense for Shattuck, Brette Pettet led the offence with goals at the 19:11 and 16:49 marks of the final period on Sunday.

“It means a lot to me a lot to me that I can help my team out and get the win,” Pettet said. “It just means a lot. I’m happy that we pulled through.”

Alexis Mauermann assisted on the first goal.

“She saw me coming, so she put it there in a position where I could get the rebound,” Pettet said. “It definitely made me feel more secure, but I still knew it wasn’t over, but it was definitely a better position to be in.”

If her fist goal didn’t put her at ease, her second one with about 10 seconds left in the game certainly did.

“It made me feel like I sealed the deal there,” she said with a laugh. “That was good. It means a lot. It was a great experience this year. And I’m pretty thankful that we could win again, and hopefully we’ll do it again next year as well.

“It just shows if you work hard and play hard as a team it will pay off in the end.”

Shattuck also got on the board at 3:11 of the opening period when Katherine Hughes scored off an assist from Maddie Mills.

“Getting that first goal really changed the pace of the game,” Hughes said. “They had control for most of the time until then, so it was a great momentum shift. After that I think everyone started flying. Everyone was super nervous leading up to it. After that everyone kind of relaxed a little bit and played how we normally do. I think it just helped us out. It was a great team effort.

“It’s amazing: My first year we didn’t make semis, so last year was surreal and this year is amazing. I can’t even explain it.”

Shattuck coach Pete Johnson said it’s especially tough to win at the 16U level because so many girls on the team end up getting called up to the Minnesota boarding school’s 19U squad.

“And we get all new players coming in,” he said. “You can see how young we are. We are a young U16 team, so that’s kind of tough. Especially against a team like that; they were good.”

Mid-Fairfield coach Kevin Tarrant said he’s won two of the five national championship games he’s coached over the years.

“They put the puck in the net and we didn’t,” he said as his players came up to hug him one-by-one. “The first two periods we outshot them and we outplayed them, but we didn’t put the puck in the net. And that’s the way it’s measured. They found a way to put the puck in the net.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.


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