The Buckingham Browne & Nichols girls team skated with the intention to “play its best game as its next game” all season.
That mindset culminated in what head coach Ed Bourget called his team’s “perfect game” on March 3 as the Knights claimed the Large School championship with a 1-0 win over Dexter Southfield.
“All year long we talked about a learning curve and progressing,” Bourget said. “I was really happy to see them put all the pieces together.”
Junior forward Savana Littlewood gave BB&N a 1-0 lead at 4:15 of the opening frame, and the group proceeded to play shutdown hockey for nearly three full periods to earn the title.
The Knights were led by senior goaltender Alexsa Caron, who posted a 33-save shutout in her final showing in a BB&N sweater and earned tournament MVP. Caron showed poise through Dexter Southfield’s pushes and limited second chances.
“Just as a goalie, it was important to show my team that I was comfortable, and I was confident in them and myself to pull out the win,” Caron said.
The confidence component is what turned BB&N’s season around. After getting off to a 4-6-2 start and dealing with injuries to some of its top players, including junior Hannah Weyerhaeuser — who suffered a broken collarbone just before the season started — the team found its swagger in mid-January.
BB&N made the trip to Quebec to face Stanstead College for two games on Jan. 13 and 14, somewhat of a test to see the level it could play at. While the Knights dropped Saturday’s contest 7-1, they came back Sunday and held it to a 1-1 game with about three minutes left in the third before Stanstead scored for the 2-1 win. Despite the loss, the girls discovered a new layer to their team game.
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“I think they felt good about that, and they really started to believe in their talent as a team,” Bourget said.
That same week, BB&N hosted Shattuck St. Mary’s for a joint practice. The Knights saw their capabilities match one of the top girls prep hockey programs in the country, and that injected a new sense of believability in the group ahead of its second-half stretch in which it went 12-4-2.
“They’re flying around our ice and we’re keeping right up with them,” Bourget said. “The hard work was already there, the resiliency was already there, but then the confidence started to come in late January, and that’s where you really see that turnaround happen.”
BB&N’s resilience carried it to the postseason, where, after taking down Thayer 3-2 in the quarterfinal, it upset No. 1 Choate, 2-1, in overtime to advance to the championship game. The Knights, the No. 4 seed, hadn’t seen Choate in the regular season. What’s more, the girls were playing for each other.
“Those girls, we’re like sisters. …We played as a family and we played as a unit,” Caron said. “The leadership was everywhere. The energy, the positivity, supportive environments, that was definitely a key to our success.”
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The Knights also were fueled by the disappointment of last year’s tournament. BB&N lost to St. Pauls, 1-0, in the semifinal and was unable to defend its 2021-22 championship title.
“I think those kids, that kind of stung them last year. We really were determined to come back and not have that same feeling,” Bourget said. “From the moment we lost to St. Paul’s, they all had it on their mind — they were going to work hard in the offseason and really come back strong.”
That they did, steered by a large group of upperclassmen. BB&N had four seniors and 11 juniors this season, all of whom had won the Large School championship in 2022 and knew what it took, both physically and mentally, to reach the top.
“Knowing what was to come, there were nerves, but I think the experience helped everyone stay calm, especially with 15 total of us having already played in a championship game,” Caron said.
Weyerhaeuser’s return from injury toward the end of the season delivered a boost to the lineup as well. The junior forward scored twice against Thayer Academy in the quarterfinal and led by example through adversity for the rest of her teammates.
“Hannah is an X factor. She’s super talented, but more than that, she’s just such a hard worker and her teammates love her,” Bourget said. “Having her back in the lineup pretty much instilled that hard work ethic we had all year long.”
As the final minutes dwindled in the championship matchup against Dexter Southfield, the Knights put it all on the line, sacrificing their bodies to get in front of passing and shooting lanes, battling hard against the boards to win puck battles, not letting up on their details in the neutral zone.
And then, it was over.
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“It was something I’ll remember forever. The last minute or so was probably the longest minute of my life,” Caron said. “You hear the buzzer and it’s like a dream come true. We worked the entire season to get to that point.”
Caron closed out her five years at BB&N with what Bourget called the “exclamation point” of her career before she heads to Stonehill College next season to play NCAA hockey. The trophy was the ultimate goal, and each player grew in their own way throughout the year. But while characterizing the winning season, one thing stood out to Caron.
“I don’t know if there’s just one word to describe it,” she said. “Immediately ‘family’ comes to mind.”
