There is nothing like the Exeter game. Unfortunetly for the girls hockey team, they had first suffered a loss to the Big Green of Deerfield last Saturday before inching out a win over Exeter on Wenesday. Deerfield managed to capitalize on the mid-period confusion, putting the puck in the back of the net and the Big Blue down 0-1. During the second period, the Blue got back on their game and came out with fire in their veins. The Blue’s seeming inability to score haunted them again as they were unable to capitalize on any of the opportunities that presented themselves. After a between periods pep talk, the Blue came out hard for the third period. During the intermission, the team set the goal to score on the first shift and, after a mere thirty-five seconds of play, Britney McKenna ’05 put away a rebound to tie the game at 1. Minutes later, defender Megan Montecalvo’06 fired a hard shot on net. The Deerfield goalie was there for the save, but coughed up a huge rebound and scoring sensation Kate Leonard ’03 was there to tip the puck in and give the Blue a 2-1 lead. With less than two minutes left to play, the referee made a questionable call and awarded a penalty shot to a Deerfield forward. She managed to put the puck up over the Andover goalie’s shoulder to tie the game up, again, at 2-2. As the clock wound down, the two teams scrambled to come up with another goal for the win, and it was Deerfield that struck blood. Despite the best last ditch efforts on the part of the Blue, there was simply not enough time for them to come back and found themselves on the losing side of an exciting game. Although disappointed Saturday’s outcome, the Big Blue did a good job of focusing themselves for Wednesday’s game against their northern cousins, the Exies. The Blue controlled the play for most of the first period, keeping the puck in their offensive zone for entire shifts, but was frustrated by Exeter’s goalie. Knowing that bragging rights, at least until February’s Andover/Exeter, were riding on their success, the Blue came out with more fire for the second period. Early in the period, Leonard scored after McKenna made a beautiful pass to her as she sat in the low slot. This proved to be the period’s only goal as the Blue continued their domination but was unable to finish. The Blue was not satisfied with the score and came out hard for the third period, only to be once again frustrated by scoring problems. After trading penalties with Exeter, the Blue kept up the intensity but to no avail. With less than five minutes to play, a defensive breakdown occurred and an Exeter forward slipped the puck past Andover goalie O’Hara Shipe ’04 to tie the score at one apiece. With less than two minutes left to play, Tetreau picked up a loose puck and put a shot on net. The Exeter goalie made the save, but PG Kelly Lannan’03 was there for the rebound, putting the Blue back into the lead. Although things were hairy for a little while, the Blue held on to their small lead to come up with the win. As Marissa Hudson’04 put it, “It showed a lot of heart to come back and win the game” and that seemed to be the general feeling among the Blue players. After going 1-1 on the week, the Blue looks forward to the rest of the season. On Saturday, they face Kimball Union Academy at 3:30 in the new rink before heading to the south shore for their Wednesday game against Tabor Academy. Andover will be looking for blood in their game against the Tabor team that beat them 1-0 earlier this season in the championship game of their holiday tournament.
