BOURNE – Like most local athletes, Caroline Doherty has always had ambitious visions of playing at TD Garden.
That dream has become a reality. The senior captain finished with a pair of goals, as top-ranked Hingham punched its ticket to the Div. 1 girls hockey championship with a wild 5-3 victory over No. 4 HPNA at Gallo Ice Arena on Saturday.
“From the four years I’ve been here, we haven’t even gotten this far,” said Doherty. “To just be able to do this is amazing.”
Prior to Saturday, some Hingham fans were concerned given the fact that the Harborwomen (23-1-1) were coming off two close playoff wins in a row after running roughshod through the regular season. They quickly put all doubts to bed in the opening minutes, as sophomore Callie Crean buried her 18th goal of the season to put Hingham ahead, 1-0. Just minutes later, Doherty found herself surrounded, but still managed to spin out of traffic before sniping her first goal of the evening to give the Harborwomen a 2-0 advantage with 8:44 to go in the first.
HPNA (17-3-5) was dealt a backbreaking blow in the final minute of the period, as it entered a 5-on-4 power play. Hingham senior captain Addy Garrity took off on a breakaway and potted a shorthanded goal to give the Harborwomen a 3-0 lead entering the first intermission.
For a moment, it looked like things might get out of hand as Doherty sniped her 40th goal of the season 1:09 into the second period, making it 4-0. However, that was when HPNA came to life. Quinn Bennett and Mia Kmiec registered back-to-back goals in the span of 4:46, as the Harborwomen watched their seemingly insurmountable lead wilt to 4-2 heading into the third.
“I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit,” said Hingham coach Courtney Turner. “We just lost that competitive edge. It’s good to know that we can still compete and lock it down when we need to, but I think you’ve got to play a full 45 minutes if you want to win it.”
Hingham fans began to bite their nails with 13:51 left in regulation, as Paige Nottingham registered a goal for HPNA to cut it to 4-3.
With a chance to play in the state championship hanging in the balance, Garrity sealed the deal for Hingham, firing a rocket off the post and in to push it back to 5-3 with eight minutes to play.
The trip to the Garden is the first since 2011 when the Harborwomen captured their last state crown.
“It feels amazing,” Garrity said. “We’ve worked so hard this entire year. We’ve worked so hard the entire four years I’ve been with this program. I feel like we’ve really built it up to the place we want it to be. We really just gave it our all, and knew that it was do or die. The Garden was right in front of us. We knew that we had to do whatever it took.”