It took a lot for the Sealakers to beat BFA-St. Albans 3-2 for the program’s first championship in its 10 year history. BFA-St. Albans is the state’s most decorated team with 11 state championships and the Sealakers had already lost to them twice during the regular season.
Of course winning the game comes down to a lot of things: years of training, quality coaching, a solid game plan and a little bit of luck. But the Sealakers also say that what happened off the ice might have made the difference.
“I think [team dinners] definitely [changed] the chemistry,” Annabelle Lekstutis ‘25 said. “We would go to people’s houses and their amazing parents would serve dinners and we would just play fun games.”
Poulin agreed.
“We started bonding more and having more team dinners, and we would get to the rink earlier and just be together more,” Poulin said. “I think being off ice and doing fun little games that aren’t related to hockey at all helped us learn about each other as people more than just as players. And I think that really helped, especially in the last couple of weeks. We really came together more as a team.”
The Sealakers are a combined team of BHS and Colchester students. They had lost last year’s Championship game 5-1 to Spaulding and Lekstutis believed that at the beginning of the season they were “putting a lot of pressure” on themselves.
“I think we wanted to win so badly,” Lekstutis said. “And that causes some division or people just get angry at each other.”
Team Captain Camryn Poulin ‘24 agreed.
“This year we went through like a couple bumps in the road with some small drama on the team,” Poulin said. “A lot of us were down on ourselves and didn’t have a lot of trust in our teammates.”
Co-head coach Molly Dimasi also talked about the team dinners and even doing yoga on Tuesdays. But for Dimasi, the key to success was open communication.
“I think one of the main things was that girls kept checking in with one another, and if something came up they talked about it [and] fixed it,” Dimasi said. “[The girls] really got close near the end; it was remarkable to see and be a part of.”
Dimasi shared a specific moment that she saw as a turning point for the team. During an away game against Essex there was a point where “if we don’t fix the obstacle in front of us, then the rest of the season may not go the way we want it to.” Co-coach Jamie Rozzi was “honest with the girls” and said something that really “set in everyone’s mind”.
Exactly what Rozzi said – no one but the team knows. But they beat Essex that night 6-0.
“We had a lot more friendship on the ice,” Lekstutis said. “And it showed because we were winning.”
Coach Dimasi said the championship game came down to everyone playing their roles. The first goal was made by Holley MacLellan who started on the offensive blue line and just dangled through everyone.
“[It] was awesome to see,” Dimasi said. “She is very talented and plays this game so well.”
Goalie Leah Boyd stopped a breakaway from Bri Jarvis. Annabelle Lekstutis then scored the second goal for the Sealakers.
“Camryn Poulin tried again to get the puck by the goalie and Annabelle just saw that puck not moving from the post and stuck with it,” Dimasi said.
And Camryn Poulin scored the game winner by skating the puck all the way from the Sealakers own goal line.
“I was so relieved and so happy [when we won],” Norra Moody ‘24 said. “There was not much left in my body. I think all of our teammates left it all out on the ice, so we just jumped into a pile and laid on each other.”
Dimasis says the Sealakers will have a hard time replacing the six “amazing” seniors that they are losing this year, but believes there is a lot of talent coming into the program.
“We will be hard to beat next year and [I] look forward to keeping this going,” Dimasi said.
Junior Lekstutis agrees.
“I think we can build on our momentum from this year – definitely,” Lekstutis said. “But I think everyone will be missing the seniors. We all love them so much, [and] I’m just happy that we won for them.”
