Gulls rally in third to beat Seahawks

BEVERLY, Mass. – Trailing 3-1 entering the third period, the Endicott College women's ice hockey team erupted for three goals over a 6:49 span to defeat Salve Regina University, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at Raymond J. Bourque Arena.

Freshman forward Caroline Hughes (Andover, Mass.) jump started the Gulls' comeback with her second goal of the season on the power play (10:51) via feeds from Meredith Vlachos (East Bridgewater, Mass./Bay State Breakers), and Courtney Walpole (Allen, Texas/Dallas Stars).

The trio then proceeded to link up once again on the game-tying goal 6:20 later as Walpole sniped home a shot past the glove of Salve Regina junior goaltender Colleen Marcik (Madison, Conn.) off passes from Vlachos and Hughes.

Thirty-nine seconds after Walpole evened the score at 3-3, sophomore forward Maggie Layo (Sandwich, Mass.) capitalized on the momentum for the hosts when she buried her team-leading fifth goal of the season – and second career game-winner – on a nice setup by freshman Meaghan Farragher (Bridgewater, Mass.).

Endicott netminder Vendela Jonsson (Linkoping, Sweden) put the clamps on the win down the stretch with two saves over the final 2:20 of action. Jonsson finished with a career-high 36 saves in the contest to improve to 6-3-2 on the season, while Marcik recorded 41 saves in the loss (3-5-2).

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The Gulls outshot the Seahawks, 45-39, but needed a 23-6 differential in the third to win the category after trailing 33-22 at the end of the second.
• Endicott is 1-0-1 in the all-time series against Salve Regina. Both teams played to a 2-2 (OT) tie in their first-ever meeting on December 5 in Middletown, R.I.
• Freshman forward Rachel Lustenring (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) scored the first goal of the game for the Gulls at 7:04 of the first period. It was Lustenring's second goal of the season.
• Jonsson stopped a penalty shot at the 16:03 mark of the first period to keep the deficit at 2-1 at the time.
• Layo went 16-for-20 at the face-off circle, while Vlachos was 13-for-20.

• Senior Danielle Phalon (Stoneham, Mass.) scored two goals in the loss to push her team-leading total to ten this season.
• Freshman Taylor Chisholm (Discovery Bay, Calif.) netted the Seahawks only other goal at 7:04 of the first period.
• Kimberly Spring (Kensington, Conn.) dished out two assists in the setback. She now has five total on the year.

WHAT'S NEXT

Endicott (8-4-2) travels to Middlebury on Saturday, January 16 for a non-conference matchup scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Salve Regina (5-5-2) visits Williams on Tuesday, January 12 at 7 p.m.