BRIDGEWATER, MASS. (October 1, 2022)- In front of a large crowd at the Bridgewater Ice Arena for the Stonehill College women's ice hockey team's first home game, the Skyhawks forced overtime with a little under five minutes left but unfortunately less than a minute into the extra frame, UConn squeaked out a 3-2 win Saturday afternoon. 

Scoring

UCO: Riley Grimley (assist: Carlie Magier) 10:40, 1st period

         Riley Grimley (assist: Carlie Magier) 06:39, 2nd period

         Jada Habisch 00:58, OT

STO: Bailey Feeney (assists: Kathryn Karo and Lily Geist) 15:52, 2nd period

        Maeve Carey (assist: Kathryn Karo) 15:51, 3rd period

Goalkeeping

UCO: Tia Chan (60:58)-16 saves

STO: Hanna Zukow (60:58)- 27 saves

The Details

• In the opening 10 minutes both sides went back and forth as each school had five shots apiece but with a little under 10 minutes (9:40), Grimley got the Huskies on the board for the 1-0 advantage.
• After the goal, the Skyhawks had a couple of chances for the equalizer before the end of the first from shots by Liv Tuffy and Gracie Sacca but were turned away by UConn goalie, Tia Chan.
• UConn continued where they left off in the second half when the duo of Grimely and Magier struck again to double their lead, 2-0 with Grimley's second goal.
• As the second started to wind down and with a little under five minutes left (4:08), Geist swung the puck to Karo behind the UConn net and Chan found herself caught behind the net. Karo alertly sent the puck back to Feeney in front of the goal and pushed the puck in the net which cut the deficit to one (2-1).
• The third period featured great defensive and goaltending play as Stonehill netminder, Hanna Zukow kept the squad within striking distance making seven saves in the third. Just like the second with less than five minutes remaining (5:09), Carey received a pass from Karo at the left face-off circle and rifled a wrist shot that found its way past the Husky defense and Chan to tie the contest at two.
• Not even a minute into overtime, Habisch took advantage of a scrum in front of Zukow to sneak the shot past her for the 3-2 win.
• Overall on the day, Zukow finished with a new high of 27 saves which topped her previous high of 23. Despite being outshot 30-18, Stonehill and UConn were tied in shots in the first (7-7) and overtime (1-1), and the Huskies only held a one-shot advantage in the third (8-7). 

Watchorn's Wisdom

"It's cool to see the learning curve," said Stonehill women's ice hockey head coach, Tara Watchorn. "I mean from one game to the next, to see the girls just take it in, buy into the game plan, start to do the little things, which is what we wanted and what we learned from yesterday, and just getting pucks in deep and going to work and it's a lot of fun to see them get rewarded from all of that and have some success. Overall, it today was great. I mean, first and foremost, the fact that we had President Father John dropping the puck and showing his support for our program was pretty special. Then to see the fans start to trickle in from students to families and administration and just the community around here, it was awesome to see the support."

Up Next

Stonehill will have some time off before continuing their homestand when the squad opens up New England Women's Hockey Alliance action with a weekend series against Post University starting on Friday, October 7 at 5 p.m.

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