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Women's Ice Hockey Blanks Terriers, 7-0
Jan. 28, 2006
Orono, Maine -- 27 seconds into the first period, Maine scored their first goal and never looked back. Behind two goals from sophomore forward Brigitte Laflamme (St. Augustin, Quebec) and three points (2 goals, 1 assist) from freshman forward Vanessa Vani (St. Catherine's, Ontario), Maine improved to 12-5-6 and 4-5-4 in Hockey East action with a 7-0 win over the visiting Boston University Terriers. With the loss, the Terriers fall to 10-12-4 on the year and 5-9-2 in conference play. Maine and BU are now tied with 12 conference points apiece. Freshman phenom Patricia Gagnon (St. Augustin, Quebec) opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at the 19:33 mark of the first period. Two more goals followed for the Black Bears as they took a 3-0 lead into the intermission. Katie Sunstrum (London, Ontario) scored her fourth goal of the season off a pass from Vanessa Vani (St. Catherine's, Ontario) who earned her seventh assist in her inaugural season. Junior forward Brigitte Laflamme completed the first period scoring with an impressive short-handed and unassisted goal with 4:12 to play in the first stanza. Laflamme stole the puck from a Terrier forward at her own blue line and raced the length of the ice, put a great fake on Terrier goaltender Allyse Wilcox, and easily scored her 11th goal of the season. After the third Black Bear goal, Wilcox was pulled and freshman goaltender Karilyn Pilch replaced her. Maine continued their dominance as Laflamme, Gagnon and Kelly Law (Markham, Ontario) connected 3:45 into the second period to extend the Black Bear lead to 4-0. Law sent the puck to Gagnon who played it to Laflamme who scored her second goal of the game and her 12th on the season. On the goal, Law earned her 16th assist of the year with Gagnon picking up her third. Senior captain Cheryl White (Portage la Prairie, Manitoba) created the fifth Black Bear goal as she side stepped a Terrier defender and passed the puck to Vani who scored her 10th goal of the season. The power play goal is Vani's fifth of the year and Maine's 36th.
The Black Bears continued to control the tempo of the game and added two more goals in the final stanza. The sophomore trio of forward Sheri Wauters (Kamloops, British Columbia), forward Danielle Tangredi (London, Ontario) and defenseman Kim Meagher (Hampden, Maine) tallied Maine's sixth goal. Wauters scored her fourth goal of the season with 7:22 remaining in the game with Tangredi and Meagher each tallying their sixth assists on the season. Vani notched her second goal of the game and Maine's second power play on the afternoon 57 seconds later when sophomore defenseman Julie Poulin (Beauceville, Quebec) and Vani connected to record her 16th assist. Maine spent the last two minutes of the game with two players in the penalty box, but was able to hold off the Terriers to record their fourth shutout of the year. Maine outshot Boston University 26 to 15, recorded two power play goals and a short-handed goal, and were perfect on the penalty kill. Maine finished 2-8 on the power play with Boston University held scoreless on the man-advantage going 0-6. Sophomore goaltender Rachel Gettings (Watervliet, New York) earned her second shutout of the year and sixth of her career. Gettings made 15 saves on the afternoon and improved to 4-1-1 on the year. Wilcox and Pilch combined to save 19 shots. Maine will travel to UConn for an away series next Saturday and Sunday with hopes of improving their playoff chances. Both games will begin at 2:00pm. Maine's next home series will be February 11-12 when they host the Vermont Catamounts. Both games begin at noon at Alfond Arena. |
