Winthrop girls hockey looks for another good season

The combined Winthrop/Lynn/Saugus girls hockey team took a couple of hits to graduation and players leaving for prep school, but coach Anthony Martucci is optimistic this year?s team has a good shot at being very competitive.The Bulldogs finished 9-5-5 last year and lost to Andover in the state tournament quarterfinals. The only graduate of the team who saw significant playing time was captain Kara Donati. Unfortunately, Donati was also the team?s most productive offensive player with 16 goals and 22 assists.The team also lost sophomore Julianna Kennedy and second line center Flora English, both from Winthrop, to prep school. Kennedy is at Buckingham, Browne and Nichols and English is at Governor?s Academy.On the plus side of the ledger, Winthrop got a local player back. Senior defenseman Katie Jeter played at Lawrence Academy for a year and then Southfield before going to junior hockey last year while at Winthrop High. This year she?s playing for the Bulldogs. She?ll be going to Norwich University.Also along the lines of good news, Caroline McKinnon is back in the fold. She?s a junior center who was second on the team in scoring last year with 14 goals and 16 assists. She?s from Winthrop and will be a captain.Cat Salvetti of Saugus is a three-time league all-star who should give the Bulldogs a head start in the area of defense. She?s a senior and a captain. Ariana Dembro of Saugus will join McKinnon on the first line. She?s also a senior. McKinnon, Donati and Dembro skated on a line together for two years.Kasey Harris and Gabby Kenniston are two of seven Lynn girls on the team. Harris, who goes to Essex Aggie, and Kenniston, a sophomore at Classical, are both defensemen. They?ll be protecting freshman goalie Gretchen Howard, who had all nine wins for the Bulldogs last year. Howard also had five shutouts and a 2.19 goals-against average. Howard?s backup will be Kayla Yarrow, a forward turned goalie who is now a freshman.The Lynn contingent, in addition to Harris and Kenniston, includes a couple of very promising players. Savannah Norcross, daughter of former St. Mary?s baseball coach Bill Norcross, is an eighth-grader at Pickering Middle School. Martucci said she?ll likely take over the job of second line center previously held by English.Several other Pickering students, Cassidy Kosmas, Catie O?Shea and Ally Giguere, will be hoping to contribute. Kosmas and Giguere are both wings and O?Shea is a center. Olivia Shkliew, a sophomore at English, and Abby Stafford, a defenseman who has good speed and is aggressive, will also be looking to have an impact.The Saugus contingent, including Dembro and Salvetti, also includes sophomore defenseman Julie Dembro. The Winthrop skaters include McKinnon, junior right wing Annie Mahoney; eighth-grader Emma English; sophomore left wing Nicole Pucillo; eighth-grader Jillian Olevitz and sophomore Meg Dolan. There are also a couple of other players who won?t be dressing initially.?With what we have, I?m hoping to be highly competitive,” Martucci said. “I?d like to compete for our league title.”Winthrop plays in the Northeast Hockey League, which also includes Beverly, Medford, Masconomet, Peabody, Marblehead and Cambridge.Winthrop will play 18 games, including one against Division 1 state champ St. Mary?s on Jan. 28 at Winthrop and one against Duxbury, the defending Division 2 state champ.