The University of Maine Black Bears saw their season come to an end on Wednesday night, as the #9 Providence College Friars took a 1-0 overtime win at Schneider Arena in Providence, Rhode Island in a Hockey East women’s semifinal playoff game.
Loryn Porter for Maine and Sandra Abstreiter for Providence, both top goalies in Hockey East, played superb as they both pitched a shutout for the entire 60 minutes of regulation. Both teams had plenty of chances to end the deadlock especially in the second period. The best chance may of been when the Friars Lindsay Bochna had a breakaway in on Porter that was turned away. The Black Bears carried the shots on goals through 40 minutes however at 21-10. The shots were 11-10 Providence in the final period of regulation but again noone could crack the scoreboard. In the overtime, it was Hunter Barnett making a nice move to beat Porter at 2:10 that ended the Black Bears season and sent PC (12-6-1) into the Hockey East Championship game.
Porter would make 22 saves in the loss, as the Black Bears end their season at 8-9-1. Abstreiter stopped all 33 shots and recorded her fourth shutout of the season. Both teams went 0-1 on the powerplay. Maine loses for the sixth time in six semifinal appearances, as they’ve never reached the title game of Hockey East. The Friars go on to play the #1 team in the country Northeastern for the Hockey East crown on Saturday. NU defeated the UConn Huskies 2-1 in the other semifinal on Wednesday. Providence has been outscored 13-1 in three regular season losses to Northeastern, and the Huskies have won 15 games in a row.
