The Concord Capitals’ run in the girls’ hockey 16U Tier-II national championships came to an end Sunday night in Burlington, Vt.
The Capitals had outscored their previous four tournament opponents by a combined score of 28-5, but they met their match Sunday night in the semifinals, losing to the East Coast Wizards, 6-0.
The Wizards opened the scoring midway through the first, and it stayed 1-0 through the first intermission. The team based in Bedford, Mass., made it 2-0 after just 13 seconds were gone in the second period and Concord trailed, 2-0.
But the Capitals rebounded after giving up that quick goal and hung tough for the remainder of the period. The Wizards, however, scored another quick goal early in the third that started a span of three goals in four minutes to make it 5-0 and suddenly a tight contest opened up. The Wizards outshot the Capitals, 38-30.
The Capitals advanced to the semifinals earlier on Sunday with an 11-1 quarterfinal win against the Troy Skaters from New York. Concord’s Bridget Babcock finished with a hat trick and an assist and Morgan Sisson had two goals and two assists.
Concord’s Julia Surgenor (goal, two assists) opened the scoring in the quarterfinals with a power-play tally at 5:41 of the first, assisted by Miranda Benoit, who then scored at 9:09 to make it 2-0. Sisson added another first-period goal and the Capitals took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
Babcock scored twice in the second period and Rose Sperry, Sydney Fascetta (goal, two assists) and Darby Palisi each added one as Concord’s lead ballooned to 8-0 by the end of the second.
Mikah Baptiste (goal, assist), Sisson and Babcock scored in the third for the Capitals, who also got two assists from Ashlyn Brown. Abby Houle finished with 21 saves as Concord held a 50-22 advantage in shots on goal.
The East Coast Wizards take on the Alaska All-Stars for the Tier-II national title Monday morning.