Mary Roux finished with 29 saves as the Pilgrims beat Southern Maine to advance to the ECAC East Semifinals
Pilgrims Escape Southern Maine, Advance to Semifinals
New England College women’s ice hockey would escape with a quarterfinal victory beating the University of Southern Maine Huskies 4-3 Saturday afternoon. With the win the Pilgrims advance to the ECAC East Quarterfinals next weekend and improve their overall record to 14-10-1. With the loss the Huskies end their season with an overall record of 7-18-1.
Southern Maine would take the early lead with Shannon Shuttle (New Ipswich, N.H.) netting her third goal of the season assisted by Kelly Connors (Topsfield, Mass.) and Lindsay Herzog (Hightstown, N.J.) just 2:04 into the first period. The Pilgrims would respond as Jana Schneider (Skaneateles, N.Y.) would slip a slap shot by the Huskie defense to tie the game at 1-1 at the 6:22 mark. The Pilgrims would tack on another goal just over a minute later as NEC’s leading scorer Sarah Graham (Brampton, Ontario) would sneak in a goal assisted by Liz Ross (W. Hartford, Conn.) and Sarah Tracey (Aurora, Ontario.)
The two teams would battle closely through much of the second period as NEC would outshoot Southern Maine just 10-6. NEC would stretch their lead to two goals as Stefanie Lewis (Windsor, N.S.) would score her seventh goal of the season at the 10:44 mark to put NEC up 3-1 heading into the final period.
Southern Maine would control much of the third period of play out shooting the Pilgrims 13-5. Southern Maine would cut the Pilgrim lead to just 3-2 as Megan Irving (Cumberland, Maine) would score a power-play goal assisted by Katie Quartuccio ((Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) at the 6:29 mark. NEC’s Jamie Collins (Reading, Mass.) would give the Pilgrims some breathing room late as she would net her ninth goal of the season assisted by Rachel White (Arlington, Mass.) with 8:37 remaining. The Huskies would not go down without a fight as Lindsay Herzog would score her first goal of the season just seconds later to pull Southern Maine within a goal. NEC’s defense would hold tight as Southern Maine would have several opportunities late as the Pilgrims escaped with the 4-3 victory.
Picking up the win in goal for the Pilgrims was Mary Roux (Auburn, Mass.) who finished with 29 saves. In goal for Southern Maine was Emily Barrett (Westport, Mass.) who finished with 23 saves.
The Pilgrims will travel to Manhattanville College where they will face the second seeded UMass-Boston Beacons in semifinal action on Saturday, March 8 time is yet to be determined.
