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Perhaps the biggest weekend this season looms ahead of the Maine women’s hockey team. The Black Bears will play a two-game series against the Niagara Purple Eagles at Alfond Arena tonight at 7 p.m. and on tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Maine is in a tooth-and-nail fight for the final ECAC playoff spot. The team that currently holds that spot is Niagara. The Purple Eagles currently have a 14-11-3 overall record and a 6-9-3 mark in the ECAC, which gives them 15 league points. The Black Bears are currently 10-11-1 overall, with a 5-10-1 ECAC record for 11 league points, which puts them four behind Niagara for the last playoff spot.
A Maine sweep will mean that the Black Bears will be in an eighth place tie with Niagara, with two games in hand. But a Niagara sweep will help them put distance between themselves and their persuers. A Niagara sweep would also make it virtually impossible for Maine to make the playoffs.
Head coach Rick Filighera knows that it may all be on the line for his team this weekend. “We may need to sweep to make the playoffs,” he said.
Niagara, coached by Margot Page, is a team that does not score in bunches. They win games because of their defense and goaltending, which Filighera made light of. “They play physical and they assert themselves. If our players don’t assert themselves, we won’t win. If we go out and play the game we’re capable of playing, we can beat them.”
“We’ve got to beat their goaltender,” he said. “She’s probably the best goalie in the league, even though her stats aren’t showing it. She has the capability of standing on her head.” To do this, he feels Maine needs to generate lots of chances in the offensive zone, more than the 20 shots on goal or so a game that they accumulated last weekend.
The goaltender that Filighera spoke of beating is Tania Pinelli, a junior from Hamilton, Ontario. Pinelli has experience on Canada’s under-22 national team. She was named the National Defensive Player of the Week by U.S. College Hockey Online for the week of January 22.
She has played in 24 games this season for the Purple Eagles. She has a record of 12-9-3, with a very low 1.76 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
The defense is very solid, but doesn’t score a whole lot. They are all physical and play the position well. The leaders are junior Barbara Prall (1 goal, 11 assists, 12 points), sophomore Linda Groff (4 goals, 6 assists, 10 points) and freshman Dawn MacCauley (2 goals, 7 assists, 9 points).
Up front, the Eagles have a few players can be dangerous at times. The group is led by junior Brooke Bradburn, who also has experience for the Canadian U-22 team, sophomore Candice Ceelen, and Stephanie Romain. Sophomore Valarie Hall, freshmen Lindsay Vine and Jennifer Goulet also are important factors.
Filighera believes that Maine may have an advantage because Niagara has never had to play at Alfond Arena before. Maine will still be minus Raffi Wolf, who is playing for Team Germany in an Olympic Qualifying tournament in Switzerland. He also thinks that a split would not eliminate Maine from the playoff race, but winning both games will go a long way. “We have the two games in hand on them, and they have to play tough teams. If we can take these two and then get Raffi back, I think we’re in pretty good shape for the rest of the season.”
Both games can be heard live on WMEB, 91.9 FM.
Bangor Daily News