Honeybaked over Little Caesars for Girls 19U state title

By Matt Bishop –

Taylor — Andie Anastos scored two power-play goals and Marah Shields stopped 37 shots to lead Honeybaked to the MAHA 19U Girls AAA Tier I state championship on Sunday with a 3-1 win over Little Caesars at Taylor Sportsplex.

“I think it was a team effort,” Honeybaked coach Ryan Pardoski said. “We got strong goaltender, Marah kept us in it all game, and we did a good job defensively keeping most their shots to the perimeter. That’s a great team. They’re very skilled, so it was a team effort to get total commitment to team defense and we got really strong goaltender. You get good goaltender and that helps out a lot. It’s a big equalizer.”

Little Caesars coach Matt Berger said the plan was to put as many shots on goal as they could, but admitted they ran into a hot goalie.

“We played them earlier in the round robin and … I think we had about 45 shots in that game,” he said. “We knew they were playing her again and we tried to get on her early and she controlled her rebounds well and didn’t give us much to go for.”

The game was choppy early, with penalties earned for boarding, slashing and body checking in the opening 10 minutes and the two teams went into the second period scoreless.

After ringing a shot off the post with about five minutes left in the first period, Little Caesars’ Maryanne Menefee didn’t ring the pipe when she got another chance. Menefee gave her team a 1-0 lead just 20 seconds into the second period when her shot from the slot beat Shields.

Honeybaked, though, would tie the game later in the period on Anastos’ first of the night. Christa Moody sent a shot from the point that came loose at the side of the goal where Anastos made no mistake about tying the game. Haley McLean also assisted.

Tied going into the third period, it was up to one of the two teams to make a play. It turned out to be Honeybaked.

With the squads skating 4-on-4, Honeybaked’s Birdie Shaw broke out of her zone and fed a pass to Tori Sullivan as the play turned into a 2-on-1. Sullivan sent a picture-perfect pass across to Kirsten Padalis who sent a picture-perfect shot past Little Caesars goaltender Lauren Bailey to give Honeybaked the 2-1 lead with 4:59 left in the game.

“That was a beautiful play,” Pardoski said. We had a defenseman jump up in the play, Sully read it and gave her the pass. That’s a goal in any league. That was fantastic. … It was beautiful.”

“They had an opportunity there where they could jump in and they had the numbers,” Berger said. “They made a nice pass.”

Only 19 seconds after the goal, Nicole Renault went to the box for Little Caesars, giving Honeybaked another power play. Just 53 seconds after taking the lead, Honeybaked added an insurance goal as Anastos scored another power-play goal on what was nearly a carbon copy of her first, barely getting it over the goal line before the net was knocked off.

This time, McLean and Megan Keller picked up the assists.

“You need to get pucks to the net and you need ugly goals to win,” Pardoski said.

“When you have good goaltender and good teams, you have to scratch and claw for goals sometimes.”

Berger pulled Bailey for the extra attacker with two minutes left but they could not find the answer to beat Shields again despite putting 38 shots on net and dominating time of possession.

“It’s part of the game,” Berger said. “You keep the play in their zone and you dominate them and they come down and they score. That’s why you play the game. The hockey gods were with them this game.”