364. The significance of that number is the amount of days since the loss in last year’s Division 2 state final to Medfield has been on the minds of the Milton High girls hockey team. The mission of this season, which they weren’t actually allowed to say out loud, was “Garden or bust.” When the Wildcats finally arrived at the TD Garden for their D2 state title game against King Philip (who eliminated Medfield in the semifinals) on Sunday morning of March 15, head coach Matt Lodi told them to own the moment, to feed off the crowd and community that had come out to support them.
They owned the moment, and now they own a state championship trophy.
Senior Sabrina Stone scored a shorthanded goal midway through the second period, freshman Maeve Lovett tipped in the eventual game-winner a short time later and second-seeded Milton killed off a late penalty to defeat the fifth-seeded Warriors, 2-1 to claim their first state championship in program history.
(For more on this story see the Milton Times issue of March 19)