Posted: Feb 19, 2011

Sherlock's late goal sends Seahawks past USM

Melanie Sherlock scored her 10th goal of the season in overtime

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. - Sophomore Melanie Sherlock (Colorado Springs, Colo.) scored her 10th goal of the season late in the third period to lift the Salve Regina University women's ice hockey team to a 3-2 win over Southern Maine in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's East action Saturday afternoon at St. George's Rink.

Senior Kendra Andrie (Muskegon, Mich.) and freshman Erin McCullough (Ludlow, Mass.) also scored for the Seahawks (10-12-3, 9-7-2 ECAC), who have won six of their last eight meetings with Southern Maine (7-15-2, 5-11-1 ECAC). The win also secures the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament for SRU and sets up a first round playoff game with No. 5 UMass Boston on Saturday, February 26 at 2 p.m. at St. George's Rink.

Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, McCullough potted her eighth goal of the season on the power play at 8:37 to even the score at two. She carried the puck over the blue line, pushed the puck through the defenseman's legs, went around her and beat freshman Jordan Lee (Colorado Springs, Colo.) with a wrist shot. Later in the period on the PP, Sherlock collected her own rebound and swiped the puck past Lee to put the Seahawks in front for good at 14:22.

"We earned home ice with this win and are looking forward to playing in front of our fans in the playoffs," said Salve Regina head coach Michael Cox, who reached the 10-win plateau for the fourth-consecutive season. "I'm just really happy with the way our team played on Senior Night. The entire team rallied behind our seniors. Southern Maine was quick at the start, but we adjusted and bounced back."

Southern Maine freshman Erin Banfield (Montpelier, Vt.) scored the only goal of the first period at 8:19. She skated out from behind the net and lifted a backhand shot over the left shoulder of sophomore Ali Muehlbronner (Glenside, Pa.) for her ninth of the season. The Seahawks evened the score at one at 8:57 of the second when Andrie skated through the left circled and sent a wrister that beat Lee low to the glove side. The goal was her eighth of the season. Junior Christen Hart (Saugus, Mass.) answered with her third goal of the season at 12:12 to give Southern Maine a 2-1 lead.

Muehlbronner finished with 22 saves to improve to 7-6-0 on the season. The Seahawks went 2-for-8 with the man advantage while the Huskies converted on one of their seven chances with the man advantage. Salve Regina outshot Southern Maine 27-24 on the afternoon, including 11-7 in the decisive third period.

The Huskies wrap up their regular season tomorrow when they travel to Worcester, Mass. to face The College of Holy Cross at 2 p.m.