Seahawks push unbeaten streak to nine
BOSTON, Mass. - After a fairly quiet first 40 minutes of play, the Salve Regina women's ice hockey team managed to skate away with the victory as the Seahawks defeated UMass Boston by the final of 4-2 Friday evening at the Clark Athletic Center Ice Arena in an ECAC East showdown.
Friday's tough conference loss drops UMass Boston's record back to .500 as the Beacons now stand at 9-9-4 on the year. In conference play their record now stands at 5-7-1. For Salve Regina, the Seahawks improved to 13-5-4, 8-4-1 in the ECAC East.
The Beacons did everything they could in Friday's contest to take down the always tough Seahawks. Sophomore netminder Casey Schaejbe (Arlington, Mass.) held Salve Regina to just one goal through the first two periods and faced a barrage of shots throughout the heated affair. The Arlington native stopped 43 of Salve Regina's 47 shots.
Salve Regina got on the board at the 13:51 mark of the second period on a goal by junior Taylor Shepherd, her eighth of the year. Shepherd would then assist her team's second goal of the afternoon, which came just 18 seconds into the third.
Kayla Kiernan (North Smithfield, R.I.) cut into the Seahawk's lead at the 8:49 mark on her second goal of the season. Emily Howard (Terryville, Conn.) and Tori Pizzuto (Waterbury, Conn.) each assisted on the huge goal, which shifted the momentum of the contest in favor of the Beacons.
Salve Regina would respond with its third goal of the day to push its lead back to two with less than nine to play in the contest. Danielle Phalon was able to sneak the puck past Schaejbe for her 11th goal of the campaign.
Just over six minutes later UMass Boston once again cut Salve Regina's lead to one with Jenny Currie (Chelmsford, Mass.) scoring a beautiful goal to the near post. The goal was unassisted and put UMB in a situation where they could pull Schaejbe and gain the extra forward.
The Beacons would pepper Salve Regina's freshman netminder Colleen Marcik in hopes of scoring the game-tier as time continued wind down. Sarahanne Cavolo (Roxbury, N.H.) nearly tied it up on a rocket of a shot that hit the inside of the post and redirected into Marcik's glove.
On the next faceoff the Seahawks' managed to clear the puck out of their end, which allowed Sarah Markey to get in behind the Beacons defense and tap in the empty-netter to clinch the victory.
Marcik made a total of 37 saves in the win as she improved to 8-3-4 on the year. Schaejbe overall record fell to 5-6-0 despite another standout performance from the sophomore.
In total there was only five penalties called in Friday's contest as UMass Boston went 0-for-1 on the power-play, while Salve finished 0-for-4 on the man-up opportunity.
Salve Regina returns to the ice when the Seahawks face St. Anselm on the road at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8.