Beverly Girls Hockey Embraces New Coaching,Conditioning for Strong Start
If your hockey team is going to have a fresh start,you might as well do it with fresh legs.
The fresh start comes as Chris LeBlanc takes over as Beverly’s third head coach in three seasons. As for the fresh legs, the Panthers put a renewed focus on conditioning and their skating in the weeks between the begining of practice and their first game.
“There’s been times when we’d kind of run out of steam in the third period. We want that third period to be a strength,” said LeBlanc. “It was maybe more conditioning than they’re used to – but it’s allowed us to roll two lines in tight games and still have high energy.”
Indeed, Beverly (3-0) has owned the third period in all three of its wins. The second was by far the most satisfying: the program’s first win over defending NEHL champion Peabody in 17 tries going all the way back to February of 2017.
Getting the final two goals of the night in the third Tuesday in a win over defending D2 state champion Medfield,and holding the visitors scoreless over the last 12 minutes,was equally notable.
On home ice at Bourque Arena, Beverly has forechecked with the vigor of a club out to prove something. Their energy never dipped and they held their opponents under five shots on goal in the final 15 minutes, even while defending a 6-on-4 power play.
“This is what coach said those two weeks of skating were for,” said senior captain Morgan Linskey, one of the North Shore’s absolute best two-way defenseman. “As a team, we all work really well together and I think all that work we did helped us out a lot in the first two games.”
Linskey, Ashley Freitas (arguably the region’s best defensive defenseman), rugged winger Meredith Johnston (39 career goals), creative winger Meg Ryan (goals in each of the first two games), defenseman Addison Shephard and winger Kirsten Cole are the five seniors on what has to be described as a veteran club.
Beverly returned five of its six double-digit scorers from last year’s state tournament qualifier, including gifted centers Asuka Keough (a junior) and Avery LeBlanc (a sophomore). The Panthers also brought back five defenseman who saw major minutes last season.Thus stability and fine-tuning are much more the focus of the new coaching staff than building from the bottom.
“Setting goals for early in the season has been huge for us,” said Freitas, who’s been on the varsity since her 8th grade season. “We knew we had the team to be really competitive, especially in the league, and we set the goal to show that right away.”
With the depth to skate three lines to wear opponents down and the stamina to cut down to two when needed, the Panthers are a handful for their opponents. Though smooth skaters like Keough, Linskey and LeBlanc are all capable of rushing the puck from end-to-end, they’d like to create their offense by punishing foes on the forecheck.
It’s an attitude that’s l