STONEHAM - Austin Prep goalie Meghan Grant dived to her left and fell hard on the ice, not knowing the puck was in the middle of the crease.
There was 2:21 left in the game, and with Grant down, it appeared that Arlington Catholic was easily going to tie the score. As the Stoneham Arena crowd roared, all of the skaters on the ice hacked away in front of Grant until she finally got control and the whistle blew.
It was the last big scare for Grant, as Austin Prep (15-3-3) held on to beat Arlington Catholic, 3-2, and advance to the quarterfinals of the MIAA Division 1 girls' hockey tournament.
"It was definitely a risky play, I mean, you have to go all out when it's something like that," said Grant, who finished with 30 saves. "The defense did amazing today and everybody was just great."
The Catholic Conference rivals met in last year's state title game with Arlington Catholic getting the upper hand.
"Arlington Catholic is an amazing team and they're very classy and we love playing them," said Grant. "It's a great time."
It was a scoring frenzy in the first period, featuring the game's five tallies, before Grant and Ashley Tolman (26 saves) stole the show in the final two frames.
"Meghan Grant, I can't say enough about her, she's unbelievable. She's our whole defense back there," said Austin Prep coach Jim McGonagle. "She won the game for us tonight with the save that she had made [at the end of the third period] . . . She was just unbelievable."
Arlington Catholic (14-5-2) struck first, scoring 1:15 in. Senior Kiera Nelligan was in the right place at the right time as fellow captain Sarah Valarelli caught a break off a mistake by Austin Prep, and slotted the puck to Nelligan, who capitalized.
But Austin Prep retaliated quickly courtesy of captain Danielle DelDotto, who snatched up the puck in the AC zone and dodged two defenders to even the score.
On a power play, Austin Prep triumphed on the triangle formation with Allison Roy, DelDotto, and Taylor Brown, who converted to make it 2-1 with 3:33 left to play.
Then with 1:44 on the clock, Roy deked to her right then left, fooling the defense to add an insurance goal.
Casey Stathopoulos found an open lane and made it a one-goal showing with 1:11 left.
"We couldn't have played any better. The goalie, Meghan, was outstanding in the third period, she must have made five unbelievable saves that I felt that were in," said Arlington Catholic coach Ed McDonald. "You have to leave it all on the ice. There's not much else you can do. You walk out of the building with your head held high."
