BOSTON — 14th shutout. 1,000th career save. State champion.
Not a bad way to cap off a high school career.
Lydia Barnes, the backbone of Methuen/Tewksbury’s stingy defense that only allowed 12 goals in 25 games this winter, delivered her most timely performance to date on Sunday to lift the No. 6 Red Rangers to a 2-0 win over No. 5 Archbishop Williams at TD Garden.
Barnes made 18 saves while surviving a barrage of shots in the first period to keep Methuen/Tewksbury (23-0-2) alive. Sammy Ryan found the back of the net in the second before Ella Duffy put the finishing touches on the win with an empty-netter in the third.
“No surprise at all,” said senior captain Ella Duffy.
“We expect no less from Lydia,” Duffy added. “She’s our brick wall. You don’t get a better goalie and a better leader.”
Barnes, who is committed to play college hockey at UMass Boston, was six saves shy of 1,000 entering Sunday. There could not have been a more fitting ending to her storied career as a Red Ranger.
“She means the world to us,” said interim head coach Ryan Sheehy. “She’s not only a great goalie, but she’s a great person and great teammate. Great captain. She’s someone that you want on and off the ice to be a part of your community, your team, whatever it is.”
Barnes, also a captain, took her leadership role to heart all season as a big voice on Methuen/Tewksbury’s defensive core.
“As a leader on this team, we set the example, we bring the energy,” Barnes said. “Having everybody feed off of us has definitely been a lot, but we’ve proven that we can handle it. We put our best foot forward, and I couldn’t be prouder of these girls.”
Lyla Chapman, Kenzie Dunnet, Lauren Ryan and Maeve Burns have been four of the better defenders in the state this season. That meant Barnes would often go games seeing under 15 shots. But her coaches and teammates had no doubt she would deliver against an offensive juggernaut in Archbishop Williams — a team that outscored its opponents by an eye-popping 17-0 margin in the state tournament before Sunday.
“She hasn’t really been tested all year,” Sheehy said. “Through the playoffs a little bit, but nothing crazy like that. We knew when we would be tested that she’d be there to stop it.”
Barnes credited the defense in front of her for her success.
“They definitely had a very good offense,” Barnes said. “They worked the puck down low a lot, and I think in front of me, (our defense) picked up sticks, moved bodies and blocked up a lot of shots. I think we did very well defensively, and it showed.”
But perhaps a little extra motivation would back each save on Sunday. Methuen/Tewksbury has been on a mission all winter to capture a state championship in memory of the late Dave O’Hearn.
“We all played for something bigger than just ourselves today,” Barnes said. “We played for Dave. Everyone has a ‘why,’ and we always are reminding each other of that.”
O’Hearn’s hallmark was defense. It was the identity he instilled in his teams.
Talk about fitting.
“Making sure we have a good solid defense shows his influence on the team,” Sheehy said. “Even though someone’s gone, it doesn’t necessarily mean you forget what they taught you. So just making sure that I and coach Brenna (Greene) say the things that Dave would day and make sure we do the things that he would do and just hold down the fort.”
