NEC Women’s Ice Hockey Edged by Visiting College of Holy Cross

HENNIKER, N.H.—New England College women’s ice hockey would fall to the visiting College of Holy Cross Crusaders 2-1 Saturday afternoon in Henniker.

With the win the Crusaders improve to 14-5-5 overall and 8-4-5 in the ECAC East.  The loss drops the Pilgrims to 8-11-6 on the season and 5-9-4 in conference play.

Holy Cross would get on the board 13 minutes into the opening period as Chelsea Monahan (Cherry Hill, N.J.) would intercept a Pilgrim pass and beat Pilgrim keeper Kristen Conners (Weymouth, Mass.) netting her fifth goal of the season.

The Crusaders would net the lone goal of the season period extending their lead to 2-0 at the 17:02 mark as Rebecca Fleming (Newton, Mass.) would pick up a loose puck and tally the break-away goal.

The Pilgrims would get on the board with just over three minutes remaining in regulation as Morgan Braniff (Tustin, Calif.) would beat Holy Cross goalie Krista Manzanares (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) top shelf assisted by Rachel Vigliano (Monroe, N.J.). NEC would pull the goalie late as the Pilgrims would try to notch the tie but would fall short.

The Crusaders would finish the game with the 36-30 advantage in shots on net. Neither team would have a power-play opportunity the entire game. 

Holy Cross goalie Manzanares picked up the win in net finishing with 29 saves.  NEC’s Conners stopped 34 saves for the Pilgrims.

NEC awaits the ECAC East final seed but will travel on Saturday, Feb. 23, time and opponent yet to be determined.  Holy Cross will close out their season Wednesday, Feb. 20 when they travel to take on ECAC East opponent Nichols College.
 

Scoring by period          1          2          3    Total

College of Holy Cross            1           1          0       2
New England College            0          0          1       1

Published: February 16, 2013