The University of Maine women’s hockey team came away with a road conference split against Holy Cross over the weekend at the Hart Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
On Friday- All the goals came in the first period, but a tally by Lulu Rucinski ended up being the game winner as Maine took the series opener 2-1. The Crusaders scored first at 5:19 on a goal by Charlotte Sonntag, but Breanna Curl answered for the Black Bears just 27 seconds later on assists by Haley Ryan and Stephanie Jacob. The winner by Rucinski came at 7:18 on the powerplay, with Paige Fong and Gracie Hanson picking up an assist each. Kiia Lahtinen made 26 saves in net in the Maine victory.
On Saturday- Taylor Cantelon had a second period game winning powerplay goal, as Holy Cross salvaged the split with a 3-1 win. Lila Shea opened the scoring for Maine at 7:01 of the first period on assists from Fong and Curl. The Crusaders scored the next three unanswered by Lane Lewis at 7:41 of the first, the winner by Cantelon at 4:52 of the second, while adding a tally from Naemi Herzig also in the second at 19:52 that ended the scoring. Maine outshot Holy Cross 42-22, as Abby Hornung made 41 saves. The Crusaders, who received votes in the top 15 national poll last week, improve to 10-5 and 3-4 in Hockey East. Lahtinen stopped 19 shots for the Black Bears, who see their record go to 4-8-1 and 2-3-1 in conference play. Maine is back at home next weekend to host Northeastern for a 6 p.m. faceoff on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Huskies (10-2, 7-0) were ranked #8 in the most recent poll.
Photos are courtesy of UMaine Athletics
