Meadow Gilchrist a power for SWS girls ice hockey

The potential is energizing as freshman Meadow Gilchrist of the Stamford-Westhill-Staples girls ice hockey motors engines around Terry Conners Rink.

It has been a long and twisting journey for Gilchrist of the Stamford-Westhill-Staples girls ice hockey in Connecticut.

Be that as it may, the Westhill High School student is in position to receive the rewards from the proceeding with development of this sport.

“It’s been fun playing with these girls,” Gilchrist said. “And it’s a challenge when we face the top teams (New Canaan, Darien, Greenwich) in the FCIAC.”

Gilchrist and Piper Fine are the lone freshmen on on the 22-member Stamford-Westhill-Staples Co-op squad.

In any case, that hasn’t prevented Gilchrist from being SWS’ driving scorer this season with 19 goals and 11 assists.

Her father, Jerry Gilchrist, was a hockey player in his youth. When she was on the ice, Meadow felt she was flying when skating. Also, shooting the puck was considerably increasingly fun.

Knoll Gilchrist came up through the Stamford Youth Hockey Association (SYHA) when there were no purely girls ice hockey teams.

Gilchrist showed enough ability to be part of the SYHA’s Travel teams. She was blessed to almost certainly play with his older brother Hunter, currently a member of the Westhill-Stamford Co-op Boys Ice Hockey team.

“It was great then,” Meadow Gilchrist said. “He helps so much now by analyzing what I do. We go out on the ice and try a lot of new skills. He helps me score more goals. Sometimes I can help his game with some advice.”

Playing with the boys gave Meadow the experience of playing in a ultra-physical environment and how to survive — and avoid — collisions.

The most essential factor in her improvement with the SWS squad was when co-head mentor John Fay moved her from left wing to center.

“Since she’s a lefty we started Meadow on left wing,” Fay said. “But she has such good hands and puck control that moving her to center was logical. At center, she can find more open ice and lead the offensive charge for us.”

Since Stamford-Westhill-Staples essentially plays two forward lines and two barrier pairs, Gilchrist gets an abundance of ice time..

Her hockey IQ is so bravo age that SWS utilizes Gilchrist on the power play and penalty kill, where opportunities for open ice are more abundant.

Gilchrist has embraced the move to center.

“I like the freedom that playing center brings. I watched a lot of video,” Gilchrist said. “It helps with my positioning and shows me things to work on. On faceoffs, I’m getting better reading the opposing center’s intentions.”

Gilchrist will get more grounded as she gets more older. That should help convert a greater amount of the breakaways she makes amid games. At the present time, she dekes a great deal however regularly wraps up excessively near the goalie on attempts..

Gilchrist is likewise dealing with her hockey Masters’ degree in the offseason. She has spent the last five summers playing for the Ice Cats, which are trained by Darien’s Jamie Tropsa.

“The drills we do are different. It’s lots of skill training and off-ice conditioning,” Gilchrist said. “Playing with many of the Darien and New Canaan girls forces me to skate faster and do more with my stickhandling.”

While she still has chapters of high school hockey history still to write, Meadow Gilchrist has sound plans for her future as well.

“Amanda Kessel is one of my heroes I watch a lot,” Gilchrist said. “To be part of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey program would be really cool. That would be a great accomplishment that will take a lot of hard work. Playing Division I hockey is another dream for me.”