New Trier Girls Hockey dominated in their 5-1 victory at the state championship against the defending champions Glenbrook North on Mar. 24.

While the Trevians were able to dominate against GBN, they came into trouble with penalties, racking up seven penalties throughout the game.

Despite these penalties, the Trevians were able to stay dominant due to the strength of their penalty kill, which did not allow a single goal from Glenbrook.

This stellar performance on the penalty kill came from a lot of practice playing shorthanded. “We have played short handed a lot this year. The confidence of the girls to play shorthanded is pretty remarkable,” said New Trier coach Bill Brush.

Junior Addie Buddington agreed with Brush that penalty kill was a crucial part in the Trevian’s win. “We had a lot of penalties & being able to step up & defend during those minutes where we were down was huge,” said Buddington.

Beyond defending these penalties, the Trevians were actually able to capitalize on them. Sophomore Kate McLaughlin scored the first goal of the game shorthanded on the Trevian’s first penalty kill.

This goal gave the Trevians momentum and helped calm many player’s nerves. Brush saw this play as one of the biggest turning points of the game.

“Definitely the first goal which was shorthanded. It put Glenbrook in a defensive shell,” said Brush.

Less than two minutes after the initial goal the Trevians were up 2-0 due to a goal from sophomore Julia Laden. At the end of the first period the Trevians were up 3-0 after junior Maddie Babnik’s power play goal.

After this strong first period, the Trevians ran into issues in the second period. GBN’s Hannah Jensen scored shorthanded, cutting Glenbrooks deficit down to two. Later in the second sophomore Mae Olshansky’s goal returned the Trevian lead to three.

But with 5:39 left in the second period, Glenbrook would receive a two player advantage for 1:19. Brush sent freshman Serena Seiple, senior Emma Yang and Babnik out on the ice to kill the five on three.

“I personally felt my best during the five on three. We had two girls in the box and they had none. I didn’t think my coach would put me in for that play, but he did and I played to the best of my ability,” said Yang.

The decision to play Seiple, Yang and Babnik paid off as Glenbrook was unable to capitalize on the five on three.

Despite the successful five on three, the Trevians were happy when the second period was over. “We didn’t play to our full potential during the second and we talked in the locker room about what we could improve on” said Yang.

This talk proved successful as the Trevians had an effective third period and were able to increase their lead to four due to McLaughlin’s second goal of the game. This goal allowed the Trevians to regain some of their confidence. “I knew it would be hard for Glenbrook to overcome a four goal deficit,” said junior Maggie Graves.

The overall Trevian domination throughout the game came from an increase in preparation for the game. “During playoffs, some of them rearranged their schedules to make it to practices,” said Brush.

While juggled their schedules to come to additional practices, it was still difficult to get the entire team together. “Practices were hard because not everyone could make it. We worked a lot on our offensive game and power play leading up to the game which definitely benefited us,” said Buddington.

Although it was difficult to get the entire team together, these practices were very beneficial as the Trevians worked on specific plays Glenbrook runs. “Leading up to the game we focused on specific plays that we knew Glenbrook would pit against us such as stretch passes into the neutral zone,” said Yang.

While many Trevian’s felt nervous going into the game, due to a rocky season with Glenbrook this year, their biggest asset was to believe in themselves and their abilities. On the Trevian’s skills Yang said, “To win we just needed to tell ourselves that we were the better team and that our hard work deserved the win.”