The Maine Black Bears women’s hockey team began their three-game road trip with a solid win versus the Dartmouth College Big Green, taking the road game by a score of 4-1. Maine was anchored with a two goal performance by third-year forward Audra Richards, who had not scored since the second game of the season.
Maine’s other two goals came from second-year forward Catherine Tufts and fourth-year and alternate captain Eve Boissonneault.
Dartmouth second-year forward Morgan Turner had the lone goal for the Big Green, her first of the season.
The Black Bears sat their regular starting goaltender, fifth-year Meghann Treacy, starting third-year Mariah Fujimagari for the first time in the 2015-2016 season. She came up big at times for Maine,making some notable saves through traffic to keep the game close early.
Fujimagari finished with 26 saves, including 12 in the first period when Maine was outshot 12-4. Dartmouth did outshoot Maine 27-16 in the contest, but Fujimagari was solid, earning her first win of the season
Dartmouth started first-year netminder Christie Honor, who did not have a strong performance in net. She allowed goals from very poor shooting angles, and only made 12 saves. Maine was able to notch four goals on only 16 shots.
Neither team could capitalize on the power play, Maine going 0-2 and Dartmouth going 0-3. The Big Green had two main advantages when the game was tied or within one goal, but the Maine defense held strong and kept them off the board.
Maine would get on the board first at the very end of the first period, when Tufts moved around the defense on the far boards in the offensive zone.
After the move, she was able to skate in on goal and get a shot off. Honor was not square to the shot, and the puck slipped right between her glove arm and the goalpost. Maine would take the 1-0 with just 51 seconds remaining in the period.
The Black Bears would go up 2-0 just 2:32 into the second period when Richards scored her first of the night.
Second-year defenseman Mikayla Rogers was able to skate the puck to her blue line before holding and finding Richards striking through the neutral zone uncovered.
Richards used her speed to create a breakaway chance, and she quickly put the puck into the net, going top shelf over the glove of Honor who thought she was going low.
Dartmouth would cut the Maine lead to one just under three minutes later, when Turner notched her first of the season.
After a shot was taken from the dot by third-year forward Kennedy Ottenbreit, it was blocked by the defense and the puck sat in the slot. Turner was the next to touch the puck, and she slid the rebound into the net past Fujimagari, who had not recovered from the first shot.
The Big Green would be within one goal for most of the period, but Maine would put the game out of reach with two goals in the third.
The first came from Boissonneault, who carried the puck from her own defensive zone all the way to the hash marks on the far side of the offensive zone.
Since most of her linemates went off for a change, she was in all alone and decided to throw the puck in on net. The puck beat Honor over her stick side shoulder from another odd angle, giving Maine the 3-1 lead.
Richards would add her second tally, and final goal of the game, skating the puck into the offensive zone while both teams were taking line changes, and like Boissonneault, decided to just throw the puck in on net.
Honor might have been screened by one of her own defenseman, but Richards’ shot floated in and beat the goalie high to the stick side.
BU tops Maine 5-3
The University of Maine Black Bears women’s hockey team traveled to Boston on Saturday night to take on the Boston University (BU) Terriers, and dropped the contest 5-3. It was a very well balanced, back-and-forth battle and the two teams were knotted in a tie multiple times throughout the course of the game.
It was the Terriers who opened up the scoring quickly as fourth-year forward Sarah Lefort scored under a minute into the game to put BU up 1-0. Maine responded 14 minutes later on the power play thanks to first-year defenseman Alyson Matteau. Matteau’s goal was assisted by second-year forward Catherine Tufts and first-year defenseman Cassidy Herman. Unfortunately, the Terriers regained the lead in the last minute of play on an unassisted goal from second-year forward Victoria Bach.
Maine came out firing in the second period, scoring the first two goals of the period and grabbing the lead for a short amount of time. Tufts evened the game up at 2-2 for the Black Bears on a power play goal coming off a double assist from fourth-year forward Audra Richards and second-year forward Brooke Stacey. Tufts goal was followed up by first-year defenseman Carolyn Menges goal five minutes later to give Maine the lead 3-2. At the end of the second period the Terriers answered the call and tied the game up at 3-3 coming off Lefort’s second goal of the game.
The Black Bears couldn’t get anything done and were shutout in the final stanza while allowing two goals, both of them to Terrier’s third-year forward Maddie Elia. Elia scored her first goal of the period 11 minutes into it, her goal was assisted by fourth-year forward Rebecca Russo and second-year forward Rebecca Leslie. Elia put the game away for BU at 5-3 with her second goal on an empty-netter in the last minute of the contest.
Fourth-year netminder Meghann Treacy stopped 28 of 32 shots for Maine. Treacy played well for the Black Bears but was outshined by Terriers third-year goalie Victoria Hanson who turned aside 30 of 33 shots on the evening and propelled BU to victory.
Terriers complete sweep in 3-2 victory
The Black Bears would lose the second game of their weekend series with BU after an all out battle saw the Terriers skate to a 3-2 win.
The Terriers were led offensively by first-year forward Sammy Davis and fourth-year forward Dakota Woodworth, who had two points each in the game.
BU would score a goal in every period, the first coming from Woodworth. Third-year forward Samantha Sutherland scored the lone goal of the second period, and fourth-year forward Sarah Lefort scored on the power play in the third.
Maine second-year forward Victoria Hummel had two assists during the game, but the team’s goal scorers came through for the Black Bears.
Second-year forward Brooke Stacey and fourth-year forward Audra Richards scored both of Maine’s goals in the third period.
Overall, Maine was outshot 44-31, including a monumental mismatch in the second, where the Terriers outshot the Black Bears 17-8.
Each team would be presented with multiple power play opportunities. The Black Bears could not muster any offense on the man advantage, going 0-2. The Terriers and Lefort would score on one of their four attempts.
Both goaltenders had impressive games, keeping the game close. BU second-year goaltender Erin O’Neil made 29 saves and earned the win, her fifth win of the year.
Maine’s fifth-year goaltender Meghann Treacy made 41 saves and took the loss.
The Terriers would score two unanswered goals to begin the game, the first coming at the 13:09 mark in the first period.
After gaining the zone, Woodworth was able to get a shot off that beat Treacy for Woodworth, it was her first goal of the season.
The Black Bears had a power play opportunity early in the second period, but were unable to cash in.
The Terriers would cash in just three minutes later when Sutherland would score to make the lead 2-0 BU. They would take that lead into the second intermission.
The Black Bear offense came to life, scoring twice in the third. Their first goal came just over three minutes into the period, when Stacey was able to beat O’Neil to get Maine on the board.
The game would remain 2-1 until the 9:30 mark, when Lefort would score her fourth of the season on the power play after Maine first-year defenseman Cassidy Herman got called for holding.
Maine would climb back to within a goal at the 13:44 mark in the third period, when Richards would beat O’Neil to make the score 3-2.
The BU defense would hold, and the Terriers would go on to get their third win in five games.
After the weekend, Maine falls to 6-8-0 (3-5-0 WHEA) and is tied for fourth in the conference with Vermont with six points. BU improves to 8-6-0 (6-3-0 WHEA) and is tied for second with Northeastern with 12 points in conference.
Maine will return to the Alfond for their next game on Nov. 22 versus the University of Connecticut. Puck drops at 2 p.m.
