“I can’t believe we could win it with 11 skaters,” Polar Bears coach Maurice Fitzmaurice said after his team knocked off defending champion Assabet Valley 4-0 in USA Hockey’s Girls Nationals 19U final Sunday.

“The kids just came out and never let up. They have a lot of heart, to beat two great teams like HoneyBaked and Assabet, and beat them pretty easily.”

The Polar Bears saved their best for last in the showcase event among the four National Championships conducted this week in Rochester. After a 1-1 tie and a narrow 2-1 victory in their first two games, they outscored their last four opponents 22-4. Assabet had given up just four goals in its first five games in the tournament.

“This is the best team chemistry of any team I’ve ever been on,” said Jaclyn Hawkins, who has been on plenty of teams. One of just two girls who will be graduating from the 19U team, she also has played for the Taft School and will attend the University of Connecticut in the fall.

“We knew we had to get goals early,” she said of her team’s preparedness and potential fatigue.

And the Polar Bears did score early -- just 3:46 into the game -- on Becky Zavisza’s goal, assisted by Kiira Dosdall. About seven minutes later, Sarah Wilson put Connecticut ahead 2-0.

That lead held up through the second period, but it wasn’t easy. The Polar Bears had to kill off a two-minute penalty during which their rivals from Massachusetts had the puck in the Connecticut end virtually the entire time. Yet Assabet couldn’t put a really good shot on Nicole Stock.

“The thing was, we played a box, and they wanted us to play a diamond,” Stock said. “The person on top at the point could see me the whole time, and I could see her, so she didn’t take a shot.”

Assabet had hoped to have more people lined up down the middle, to create screens on the goalie.

After that period, the Polar Bears received a break because the schedule called for new ice to be laid down at the second intermission.

“We were all tired,” Hawkins said, “but that break between periods helped. The adrenaline was flowing. We knew they were going to come out strong.”

If Assabet came out strong, the Polar Bears were stronger. They had an 8-4 third-period advantage in shots, and scored two more goals.

Hawkins had the first of those, and it was a back-breaker. “I forechecked, and brought the puck out of the corner. The thing is that our assistant coach has been giving me a hard time about not using my backhand, so I got back at him with this backhand. The puck just kind of trickled in.”

The final goal came just 23.6 seconds before the final horn, when Maggie Kennedy retrieved a shot off the back boards and put it into the Assabet goal. That score made Kennedy the high scorer in the U19 competition with six goals and three assists.

At the other end, Stock made 15 saves for her second shutout of the tournament, but admittedly barely had to break a sweat. She said, “I don’t think I had to make any huge saves. We played defense hard, and blocked a lot of shots in front of me.”

Said Fitzmaurice, “We kept a forward high, almost out to the blue line, and tried to keep the middle closed. We were able to pick off a bunch of passes, and we forced them to the outside where they don’t like to go.”

Despite the loss, Assabet had nothing to be ashamed of. The organization produced two 2004 National Champions, a runner-up and a bronze medallist in the four Girls age groups.