The women’s ice hockey team marked its return to Meehan Auditorium this weekend with two victories in a pair of non-conference matchups, both against the visiting University of Maine Black Bears.
The games against Maine (4-7-2, 3-1-1 Hockey East) were a good demonstration of Bruno’s promising offensive capabilities.
“Our offense was great,” said Janice Yang ’15. “We worked really well together.”
During Friday afternoon’s game, the Bears (3-4, 1-1 ECAC) set the pace of the contest upon taking the ice. Bruno claimed control over the puck after winning the first faceoff. Within seconds, Kaitlyn Keon ’15 scored the first goal of the game off an assist from Sarah Robson ’15. Another one of Robson’s game-high three assists came minutes later when Lauren Vella ’15 netted a goal, taking the score to 2-0. With three minutes left in the first period, Maine finally was able to get the puck through the pipes, bringing the score to 2-1 going into intermission.
Taking the ice at the start of the second period, Maine displayed a more aggressive offense. After a penalty was charged to the home team, the Black Bears took their power-play opportunity to send shot after shot toward the goal. Fortunately for Bruno, Maine found it impossible to capitalize on the advantage. But minutes later, Maine managed to combat a state of being outnumbered during one of Brown’s power-play opportunities and netted a goal, balancing the score at 2-2.
Goals by Erin Conway ’17 and Keon late in the second period and early in the third served to distance Bruno from its opponents. In spite of outnumbering the Bears, Maine found it impossible to score in the last period, largely due to goaltender Monica Elvin ’17 having 14 of her 30 total saves in the third period. With seconds remaining in the contest, Kelly Micholson ’16 added a goal to the Bears’ total, sealing the team’s 5-2 victory.
Friday’s loss seemed not to have a negative impact on the morale of the visitors, as Maine quickly attacked the home team and created a three-point deficit in the second game. Toward the end of the first period, momentum began to shift toward the Bears. Robson managed to take control of the puck and skated past defenders to score Bruno’s first goal. Robson’s goal marked the start of the squad’s rally to overcome the deficit.
Bruno went on a 5-0 scoring streak after Robson’s goal. Keon scored two goals during the second period, bringing the score to 3-3 by the second intermission. A goal from Sam Donovan ’18 during a power play early in the third period and Robson’s empty-net goal near the end of the contest enabled the Bears to take the lead and again defeat Maine.
Bruno’s defense and Elvin’s 27 saves prevented the Black Bears from scoring again after the 6:59 mark in the first period, when the team scored its third and final goal of the game. Bruno’s scoring surge and Maine’s drought brought the final score to 5-3.
“We struggled on Saturday, but we generated a lot of offense and managed to come back,” Yang said. “We need to work on making our defense more solid and scoring more, but I’m hoping to come out strong again next weekend.”
The Bears will take on Cornell (0-4, 0-2) next Friday in Ithaca.
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