Double Championships Celebrated

Westminster had a double championship day when both the girls’ and boys’ hockey teams won their respective holidays tournaments over the Dec. 17-19 weekend.

For the first time in a decade, First Boys’ Hockey secured the prestigious Flood Marr Championship. The road to victory began with a 5-2 defeat of Hotchkiss and continued with big wins over Andover (3-1) and Milton (5-0). In the final game on Sunday, the Martlets encountered an impressive Kimball Union team, ranked third in New England. KUA started out strong, and impressive goaltending by Patrick Spano ’12 kept the Martlets only down a goal by the end of the first period. In the second, Westminster benefited from two powerplays, and Luke Laszkiewicz '11 scored on both to put the Black and Gold ahead to start the third period. KUA scored at the beginning of the third, and the two teams remained knotted through two overtime periods when, finally, Emilio Audi '12 found Laszkiewicz who completed his hat trick and earned the tremendous win for the Martlets. Tim Acker '11 and Laszkiewicz were named to the all tournament team, and Spano earned the MVP award.

First Girls’ Hockey again hosted the Westminster Invitational Tournament, which this year expanded to eight teams. In the first three rounds of play, the Martlets had little trouble defeating Canterbury, Milton and NMH, outscoring their opponents 14-1. In the championship game, the Martlets faced Governor’s Academy who had an equally impressive run to the finals and touted some exceptional players. After a scoreless first period, Westminster came out in the second flying and put three goals on the board. Sydney Daniels ’13 scored twice and Nina Gozzi ’12 scored the third. While the game seemed in hand at the beginning of the third, Governor’s was not ready to quit and responded with two big goals and had chances to tie the game. It was an exciting finish to the tournament for the Black and Gold who were able to hold on to the 3-2 win thanks to some strong defense and tremendous goaltending by Carmen MacDonald ’11.