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Split-Squad Vermont Shamrocks Come Up Big in New England

By Mike Scandura - Special to USAHockey.com, 03/17/15, 1:30PM MDT

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The Tier II 16U team came together and won a district title in overtime

For the split-squad Vermont Shamrocks, quality of practice made up for a lack of quantity as the Tier II 16U girls’ team won the New England District championship this weekend in Smithfield, R.I.

The Shamrocks edged the Maine Gladiators 2-1 on Riley Yandow’s overtime goal to advance to the Toyota-USA Hockey Girls Tier II National Championships for the third time in the last four years.

Two years ago, the Shamrocks’ 16U team flew home from San Jose with the national title.

“We didn’t have a single game together until we came back together for regionals,” said Shamrocks co-head coach John Hamilton. “We just had three practices and came together for this regional tournament. We did some scrimmaging and had one more practice mid-week.

“It’s the enthusiasm of this group that brought us here. This is the first step in the journey for these kids.”

Vermont is one of several states in which teams split up so that players can suit up for their respective high schools during the winter.

“We think having these kids in our programs at the local levels is important in developing hockey for girls generally,” Hamilton said.

“We’re a split-season organization made up of local, public high school kids. We play 25 games in the fall, and then the girls go back to their high schools. Many of them are leaders. Most of these kids are captains or great student-athletes.”

The Shamrocks proved to be a strong team at the district tournament. They blanked the Connecticut Northern Lights 7-0, shut out the Rhode Island Sting 3-0 and then skated to a 2-2 tie with the Gladiators in the round robin before edging the Sting 3-2 in the semifinals.

Leading into the championship game, Yandow, Kattie Matott, Kallie Matteson, Kaitlin Laroe and Emma Hill led the Shamrocks offensively. At the other end of the ice, goalies Mikaella Doran and Vika Simons combined to allow only five goals in the five games.

The championship game was a rematch with the Gladiators, the only team the Shamrocks did not beat (or shut out) in the round robin. For most of regulation it appeared the championship game would be scoreless. But with 2:30 left in the third, Maine grabbed a 1-0 lead when Mikaila Cloutier sailed in on a clean breakaway and beat Simons with a shot to her glove side.

Instead of removing Simons in favor of an extra skater, Hamilton opted to keep her in net, and the move paid off big time.

With 48.3 seconds left in regulation, Matteson slid a pass to Amanda Sinkewicz, who deflected it past Savannah Shaw for the game-tying goal. Shaw made 11 saves between the second period and overtime.

Finally, in overtime, Matott passed to Yandow in traffic, and she stuffed the puck home with 5:39 left in OT — igniting an on-ice celebration.

“We have an organization that starts at U10 and goes all the way up,” Hamilton said. “What’s made us most attractive is we support local hockey first. We want these kids playing for their local associations.

“It’s wonderful when these kids play their high school games. They compete hard against each other. Then, at the end of the game, they go into the [post-game handshake] line, stop and hug each other.

“They respect each other very much.”

So how did Hamilton and his staff — including co-head coach Keane Yandow and assistant coaches Tim Matott and Patrick Burke — mold a team that could compete for, let alone win, a regional championship with a minimal amount of practice time? Hamilton has a simple answer.

“When we come back together, it’s pretty easy to generate a team sense because they’ve been through some different things together, and they can’t wait to play on the same team,” Hamilton said quite matter-of-factly. “That’s really the magic.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.


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