Loyola defenseman Kaela Finegan isn’t on the ice to score goals, but when she had an opportunity to give the Ramblers the lead in the third period of the AHAI state semifinals she didn’t hesitate to take the shot.
Just a few feet inside the blue line, Finegan released a slapshot that grazed the crossbar and found its way into the net with 7:21 remaining as the Ramblers went on to beat Lake Forest 2-1 on Tuesday night at The Edge Ice Arena. The top-seeded Ramblers advanced to the state championship at 9 a.m. Sunday at the United Center against Latin.
“The puck came back to the blue line and there was no one there so I just took the shot,” said Finegan, a freshman who estimated she has less than five goals this year. “I consider myself more of a defensive [defenseman] but sometimes I’ll take those risks.”
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Loyola (19-5-4) grabbed a 1-0 lead with 14:36 to play in the second period on a goal by Courtney Cheevers. Fifth-seeded Lake Forest (15-8-3) tied it up with 12:52 remaining in the third thanks to a beautiful redirect in front of the net by freshman Victoria Soukup.
With Tuesday’s win, Loyola defeated Lake Forest in all four games the two teams played this season.
“Our girls played their hearts out,” Scouts coach Liz Zorn said. “Corynn [Salazar], our goalie gave us a shot. She kept us in it with some huge saves. We had good offense. We just didn’t bury our chances.”
Salazar finished with 13 saves while Loyola goalie Tianna Lavalle had 12 saves.
Latin 5, New Trier 0
Nothing went New Trier’s way in its AHAI state semifinal game against Latin on Tuesday night and it showed on the scoreboard.
The Trevians were blanked by the Romans 5-0 at The Edge Ice Arena as Latin advanced to Sunday’s state championship game against Loyola at the United Center.
“I think we played a great game and I don’t think the score reflected how good our girls played,” New Trier coach Nelson Forsberg said. ” With the two-goal lead, we weren’t panicking. Once they got three we had to push it a little bit to try and jump-start our offense and maybe it snowballed a little from there.”
Neither team scored in the first period, but second-seeded Latin (20-5-3) started to heat up in the second with goals by Kendra Nealey and Grace Zarzecki in the first five minutes of the period.
That’s how the score remained until the third period.
“We were working really hard and we had a plan going into the third period to get a goal or two quick,” New Trier senior Alison Griffin said. “It didn’t work out that way but we kept skating hard and we didn’t give up. We worked as a team and tried to finish strong.”
Latin goalie Lauren Bennett was credited with 17 saves while Meagan Hearn had eight stops for third-seeded New Trier (15-11-4).
Rob Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @chicagolandprep
This story has been changed to reflect the following corrections:
The article mixed up the number of saves made by the Latin and New Trier goalies. Latin’s Lauren Bennett finished with 17 saves, not eight, and New Trier’s Meagan Hearn finished with eight saves, not 17.