The Maine Black Bears women’s ice hockey team has never appeared in a Hockey East title game since the league started the tournament on the women’s side back in 2003. Unfortunately that streak will continue. Despite a strong start, Maine fell to Northeastern 3-1 at Lawler Arena at Merrimack College Saturday afternoon in a semifinal game.
Maine (15-14-8) entered the tournament as the #7 seed and upset #2 Boston University in a two game sweep in the first round. Saturday, the Black Bears faced the top seeded Huskies who are also #4 in the country. Maine didn’t seem intimidated though and took a 1-0 lead on a powerplay goal from Ida Press at 4:27 of the first period. The Black Bears frustrated the Huskies through the first two periods by muddling up the neutral zone, and at times making Northeastern go 200 feet everytime they touched the puck. They finally would break through however when Skylar Fontaine scored on a powerplay at 1:05 of the third period to tie it. Northeastern then got the game winner just 2:40 later when Alina Mueller tallied. Maine had a chance with 6:37 left on a powerplay, but came up empty. The Black Bears pulled goalie Carly Jackson late, and Fontaine found the empty cage at 19:45 to put it away.
Ali Beltz and Ida Kuoppala had assists for Maine in the loss. Jackson finished with 35 saves. The Black Bears went 1-4 on the powerplay, while the Huskies were 1-3. Aerin Frankel made 20 saves in the Northeastern win, as they improve to 31-4-2 and move on to the Hockey East championship game to face Connecticut Sunday afternoon.
