These Bulldawgs have plenty of bite

WINTHROP – The best hockey team north of Boston resides, for the most part, in Winthrop. Technically speaking, though, the 9-1 Bulldawgs are a co-op team comprised of girls from Lynn, Saugus and Winthrop. That changes, however, the moment they don the Bulldawgs hockey sweater.
“There’s no one here from a different town, as far as we’re concerned,” said Bulldawgs coach Anthony “Butch” Martucci. “When you are here, you’re a Bulldawg.”
“We play as a team,” said senior captain Caroline McKinnon. “No one is selfish, and no one person is more important than the other.”
Martucci, a 1993 Winthrop High alum, is in his seventh year as coach. In high school, he played hockey for the Vikings, and started his coaching career with boys? teams in Winthrop before finding his home as coach of the Bulldawgs. He’s found the perfect mix of seriousness and fun to lead his team.After Winthrop suffered its only defeat of the season, 2-0 this past Saturday in a frustrating loss to Masconomet, the team bus was forced to pull over on the way home so the driver could check that all the equipment bags were stored away securely. Martucci used the opportunity to lighten up his team, which took the loss hard.
“When the driver left the bus,” McKinnon said, “Coach started yelling. He screamed, ‘Everyone has to walk home since we lost!’ And all the younger girls got up because they were so afraid, but then he told them he was only kidding.”
Martucci successfully picked up his team’s morale after the loss.
“We were really disappointed with the loss,” said sophomore goalie Gretchen Howard. “But then we were ready to move on. The schedule is getting tougher, and we love the challenge.”The team is not afraid to show off its ambition.
“Our goal is to make it to the Garden,” said McKinnon, referring to the state championship at the TD Garden in Boston. “We want to go all the way.”
Martucci singled out junior winger Nicole Pucillo as a critical part of the team’s success on and off the ice.”Nicole is a real team kid,” said Martucci. “She ties everything together for us. She’ll pick up her teammates when they’re down and keeps everyone up, too.”
Winthrop’s success on the ice runs far deeper than goal scorers and playmakers. The girls take a lot of pride in playing together and looking out for one another.”Even though we’re from different places, our team is not divided,” said senior right winger Annie Mahoney. “That’s what makes us so special. We’re all one team.”
“Being so close helps us play so well,” added sophomore forward Flora English. “We go hard every practice and help each other.”Girls? high school hockey is unique in the sense that the middle schoolers practice with the high school team. For someone like Howard, despite only being a sophomore, she’s already been with the program for four years.
“We are together so often,” Howard said, “we’ve become a family.”
After serving as the understudy for Lynn native and Boston College goalie Katie Burt — who started for the Bulldawgs as a sixth-grader before eventually transferring toBuckingham Browne & Nichols –Howard has sparkled in net so far this season.”Gretchen is a gamer,” said Martucci. “The bigger the game, the more intense and ready she is to play. She learned a lot from watching Katie Burt for two seasons. When you walked in the locker room before a game, Katie would be laser-focused. Gretchen has that kind of focus for us now. She used to be too hard on herself if she let in goals, but she’s not that way any more. She’s been fantastic for us.”Howard’s defenders also love putting their bodies on the line to support her.”We take a lot of pride in protecting the goalie and making as many plays as possible,” said senior defenseman Kasey Harris. “There’s no place I’d rather be than here with these girls. I love them and I love the coaching staff, and it’s such a great experience playing for this team.”The defense also adds a scoring punch. Gabby Kenniston has four goals from the point this sea