Seahawks clinch No. 2 seed with 8-2 win

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. - Salve Regina University women's ice hockey scored four first-period goals en route to an 8-2 final against Nichols College in the final regular game for both teams. The Seahawks improve to 15-6-4 overall and 10-5-1 in ECAC Women's East action, and claim the second seed for the league playoffs among Division III schools.

The Bison, losing the ninth time in last 10 games, finish 4-21-0 overall and 2-14-0 in conference play.

Sophomore Britani Dunbar (Swampscott, Mass.) scored the first goal of the game, her first of the season and second of career, an unassisted tally five minutes into the opening period.

Nichols' leading scorer, Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.), broke free three minutes later on a nice feed from Talia Hohmann (Marina, Calif.), to tie the score at 1-1.

Salve Regina took control with three more goals in the period. Michelle Holmes (Goffstown, N.H.) and Shelby Johnson (Sterling, Mass.) both netted their first of two on the night. Freshman Kayla Smith (Woburn, Mass.) scored with 12 seconds left in the opening stanza.

The second period featured only one goal - Cheyenne Boyd (Phoenix, Ariz.) at 4:15 - but was marred by 11 penalty whistles. Salve Regina went 0-for-5 on its power-play opportunities while negating both Nichols extra skater situations in the middle period.

Both starting goalies ended their night after 40 minutes of action. Colleen Marcik (Madison, Conn.) made 16 saves while recording her 10th victory of the season; Francesca Palazzo (Bernardston, Mass.) suffered her 10th defeat while stopping 22 Seahawk shots.

Johnson, who factored in four points for the Seahawks, fed Holmes to open the third-period scoring. The second-year forward then had a power-play score for her fifth goal of the season. Hohmann added her second assist of the game in the 12th minute for Megan Gerein's (Dubuque, Iowa) third goal of the season.

Taylor Shepherd's (Quincy, Mass.) 10th goal of the season was the team's third shorthanded tally of the year.

Salve Regina's Michael Cox earned the 100th win of his career as head coach and his Seahawks now have back-to-back 15-win campaigns. The Seahawks host No. 7 seed Plymouth State University next Saturday at 7 p.m. at St. George's.