Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Sports
Both NDSS’ girls and boys hockey programs suffered upset playoff losses, ending any hopes of playing for a KASSAA championship banner.
The lady Golden Hawks, who finished first overall, were bested 2-1 in Tuesday’s semifinals by the fifth ranked La Salle Black Knights.
NDSS took an early 1-0 lead thanks to Maddi Wheeler. Hawks goalie Maddy Burgess shut out the Black Knights for two periods, turning away some ample scoring chances before finally allowing a goal early in the third. La Salle took the lead for good with 4:42 left in the game. Despite some quality opportunities in the final minutes, the Hawks couldn’t convert and saw their season come to an abrupt end.
“When it comes to one game, who knows?,” said Hawks head coach Chad Miller. “I wish there was time in a season to actually have a series. In a one game take all, who knows? I’d say our team out chanced them, we had more possession, we hit posts.”
“I’m not taking anything away from them,” Miller said of the Black Knights. “They played hard and skated hard. Their goalie played really well. We still had the majority of the play, but it didn’t work out that way.”
NDSS had entered the season in hopes of defending their KASSAA title. Instead they’ll miss out on reaching the finals, ending a stretch of four straight appearances.
“We’re a young team and a lot of the girls are going to learn from this,” said Miller. “I think sometimes when you finish first you think you just have to show up to the rink, but it doesn’t always work like that.”
NDSS was undefeated in the regular season, going 7-0-1. Meanwhile in the other semifinal series, the Frontenac Falcons topped the Holy Cross Crusaders. The loss was an upset of sorts for the Crusaders as well, who had played NDSS in the last four KASSAA finals, winning the previous three before last year.
Napanee had advanced to the semifinals with a 4-1 win over Ernestown on Wednesday.