STONEHAM — The Austin Prep girls hockey team has become a freight train with no breaks in a perfect season, continuing to answer the bell against tough opponents.
The Cougars continued rolling Sunday with a tightly contested 3-1 victory against nonleague opponent Shrewsbury.
“It was definitely a good test,” AP coach Stephanie Wood said. “They have a great squad, they’re strong up front, they’re strong in net. This was a good tune-up for us getting closer to the tournament.”
Austin Prep (18-0-0) opened the scoring 6:20 into the game when junior Kara Cecchini took a feed from Monique Lyons and laced it far-side against the grain from the top of the right circle to make it 1-0.
The Colonials (10-4-3) skated stride for stride with the state’s top team in the opening frame but were unable to solve AP senior goalie Hannah Aveni (14 saves), who turned aside nine first-period shots including four on two Shrewsbury power plays.
The Cougars put their foot on the gas in the second, and finally broke through with 5:26 to go when a seeing-eye wrist shot by junior Felicia Zuccola found its way through a screen and inside the far post, extending the lead to 2-0.
Shrewsbury junior goaltender Riley MacCausland was stellar despite the loss, turning aside 22-of-24 shots in the first two periods alone to keep the Colonials within shouting distance.
Shrewsbury would find the net on the power play 2:10 into the third when a Grace Felicio wrister deflected in off an AP defender to make it 2-1.
The Prep peppered MacCausland down the stretch trying to extend the lead, but the sound Colonials tender denied all 16 shots she faced in the final frame.
“Obviously she had a great game, but we need to work on making life a little harder for the goalie,” Wood said. “We have to finish a little better. We had a lot of great chances, and we have to keep plugging away.”
MacCausland made 38 saves.
Cougars forward Aylah Cioffi finally iced the game with an empty-netter with 32 seconds remaining.
“We can come out of that seeing what we did well and what we need to work on in critical situations in a tight game,” Wood said. “We’re ready. We know when the postseason starts the slate gets wiped clean. We’ll take it one game at a time and see where the chips fall.”
