Hannah Miller sniped a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle past University of Vermont goaltender Madison Litchfield with 31.9 seconds remaining to lift the St. Lawrence University women’s hockey team to a 2-1 win in a non-league contest at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.
“That game could have gone either way,” said head coach Chris Well ’92. “UVM had two great chances right before our timeout to score and we were able to get a transition goal to win it off a great backcheck.”
The No. 6/7 Saints swept both games of the home-and-home series, improving to 5-0-1 and extending their unbeaten streak to six games. St. Lawrence is one of seven teams to remain unbeaten; four of those teams are Ivy League schools, which opened their season this weekend.
Kourtney Menches got the scoring started for the Catamounts with an unassisted goal about halfway through the first period.
“UVM really took it to us and outworked us in the first period,” said Wells. “I felt we were fortunate be only down 1-0.”
Kennedy Marchment tied the game halfway through the second period with a shorthanded goal, her second of the season. With the goal, Marchment extended her scoring streak to nine games, dating back to Feb. 27, the second game of the team’s ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series with Princeton last season. Brooke Webster, who assisted on Miller’s game-winning goal, also has a nine-game scoring streak.
“That was a big shorthanded goal for us, and we had some great penalty kill efforts early in the third, as well,” said Wells.
The Saints killed three penalties early in the third period, including a one minute, 20 second 5-on-3 situation, to keep the game tied.
The win was the second come-from-behind win of the season for St. Lawrence; the Scarlet and Brown also beat Clarkson 2-1 after allowing the first goal on Oct. 7.
Grace Harrison made 16 saves for the Saints, while Litchfield made 25 saves for UVM, which fell to 2-3-1.
The Saints will host Concordia University from Quebec in an exhibition game on Tuesday, then open ECAC Hockey play against Dartmouth and Harvard at Appleton Arena next weekend.
