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The proverbial monkey was lifted off the back of the University of Maine women’s hockey team this weekend as the Black Bears defeated the Providence College Friars 3-2 on Sunday for the first time in school history. Maine lost on Saturday by a score of 2-1.
“That was the story of our season,” UMaine head coach Rick Filighera said. “Started off slow, had a good second period, got punched in the mouth and came back and found a way to win plus dealt with every adversity you could think about in a game. This could be a real good point for us in the season. That’s the point where we are trying to get over the top. This is a huge win for our program.”
In Sunday’s penalty-laden game, the Friars got on the board first when senior defenseman Kelli Halcisak scored at 12:15 of the first period off an assist from freshman forward Karen Thatcher.
In the second period, the Black Bears tied the game at 1-1 when junior forward Cheryl White scored at 12:39 as Providence sophomore goaltender Jana Budgen tried to get back into position. White found a big empty net to score in.
Two minutes later senior forward Meagan Aarts scored in front of the net in her first of two goals of the day.
The Friars tied the game back up at 2-2 at 10:34 of the third period when junior forward Rush Zimmerman found the left side of the net for the goal. Senior defenseman Meredith Roth and senior forward Darlene Stephenson assisted on the goal for the Friars.
Three minutes later, Aarts scored her second goal of the game and the game-winning goal off a rebound on the left side of the net. Senior forward Karen Droog and sophomore forward Morgan Janusc assisted on the goal.
Black Bear senior goaltender Lara Smart made 25 saves while Budgen stopped 16 for the Friars.
“I am happy for the women,” Filighera said. “They deserved it. I hope they cherish it. This is going to be a special moment especially for my seniors for the first time we’ve ever beaten Providence. It’s the number nine team in the country and we busted our butts for a long time to get to this point. So I am really happy for them.”
In Saturday’s game, Zimmerman scored the first goal of the game when she won the faceoff to the left of Smart and passed to Halcisak who fired a shot from the blue line. Zimmerman then tipped the shot past Smart at 3:45 of the first period.
About five minutes later Black Bear freshman forward Sonja Corriveau tied the game at 1-1 on a two-on-one advantage past senior goaltender Amy Quinlan.
In the second period, Halicek notched the game-winning goal at 11:04 of the period when the Friars had a five-on-three advantage. Roth and Zimmerman assisted on the power play goal.
There would be no scoring for the rest of the game as the Friars outshot the Black Bears 35-17. Smart made 33 saves for the Black Bears while Quinlan stopped 16 for the Friars and earned her first win of the season.
“You can not have the chances we get and not finish,” Filighera said. “We did a lot of things well. I don’t know what to say. I am very frustrated, because I am tired of losing 2-1, 1-0, 3-2, 4-3, and 5-4. Coming up one goal short hurts a lot more than it does when you are getting blown out because we are there. This team really needs just to figure out a way to finish around the net. We got to get some ugly goals, but I am happy with the effort.”
The Black Bears will face Harvard on the road next Saturday at 2 p.m. before returning home to play a set with Northeastern on Dec. 6 and 7 at 1 p.m.
Bangor Daily News