Jan. 26, 2008

Box Score

Burlington, Vt. - The Providence College women's ice hockey team was defeated by the University of Vermont, 2-1, in Hockey East action on Saturday night. PC took the lead in the first period, but two unanswered goals by UVM, including a third period game winner by Celeste Doucet, gave UVM the win. With the loss Providence moves to 11-10-3 (6-3-2 HE), while UVM improves to 5-18-1 (1-9-1 HE).

In the first period Vermont earned the game's first power-play opportunity around the 10:30 mark, but blocks by Jenna Keilch (Clinton Township, Mich.) and Alyse Ruff (Taulatin, Ore.) as well as a Jennifer Smith (St. Albans, Vt.) save negated the advantage. The Friars then earned a power play chance and capitalized at 15:41 when freshman Jean O'Neill (Strafford, Pa.) took a pass from Amber Yung (Rockville, Va.), who had picked up an errant UVM clearing attempt at the point, and beat Vermont goalie Kristen Olychuck from just outside the crease. Vermont answered back at 18:41 to tie the game, 1-1, on a Molly Morrison goal, with assists going to Jackie Thode and Brittany Nelson. UVM threatened to take the lead with 15 seconds left in the period as Hannah Westbrook skated down the left side on a breakaway, but Smith was able to make a save to keep the teams tied at one as they headed to the first intermission.

There was no scoring in the second period, but the Friars were able to outshoot Vermont by a 9-2 margin. In the third period, the Friars came close to taking the lead at 5:49 when Erin Normore (Cambridge Ontario) was sent in on a partial breakaway by O'Neill, but Olychuck was able to deflect Normore's shot wide of the net. UVM almost took the lead at the 11:00 mark when skating in on a two-on-one break, but Smith got a piece of the UVM shot and Colleen Martin (Woburn, Mass.) cleared it off the goal line for the Friars. UVM was able to take the lead at 16:51 when Celeste Doucet knocked home her own rebounded shot after J. Smith made the initial save on Doucet's wraparound attempt. With 1:30 left the Friars, who were on the power play, pulled Smith in favor of an extra attacker, but Olychuck kept the Friars off the board as she made key stops on both Katy Beach (Cleveland, Ohio) and Mari Pehkonen (Tampere, Finland).

Smith finished with 10 saves for the Friars, while Olychuck made 30 saves in UVM's victory.

The Friars return to action Thursday, January 31 against Hockey East foe Boston University in Providence, R.I. The game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Schneider Arena.