MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior Courtney Winters (Swampscott, Mass.) recorded a hat trick and also handed out three assists, while sophomore Alex Kazmer (Crystal Lake, Ill.) tallied two goals and four assists, to lead the Saint Anselm College women's ice hockey team to a convincing 12-3 victory against New England College on Friday night at Thomas F. Sullivan Arena.
The Hawks, who improve to 13-2-0 on the season, including 6-1-0 in ECAC East play, matched the program record for goals in a game, which came in a 12-0 win at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Nov. 12, 2005. The 15 combined goals broke the previous record that was set in Saint Anselm's 7-6 win against Sacred Heart on Feb. 27, 2010. The Pilgrims sink to 1-14-0, 1-6-0 ECAC East.
Fourteen of the 18 Saint Anselm skaters recorded at least one point, while senior Jacqueline Bouchie (Belmont, Mass.; 3 assists), freshman Alison Quinn (Canton, Mass.; 2 goals), sophomore Jessica Galiczewski (Kings Park, N.Y.; 2 assists) and junior Tiffany Herron (Clinton Township, Mich; 1 goal, 1 assist) joined Winters and Kazmer with multiple points.
Quinn began the scoring at the 7:34 mark of the opening period as she poked in the puck right in front of NEC goaltender Lauren Hopps after Galiczewski's slow shot from the top of the slot trickled through traffic. Winters earned a secondary assist on the play.
The Hawks doubled their lead 1:33 later when Bouchie skated down from the left-circle boards and dropped the puck in the left corner for sophomore Sarah Geisinger (Willoughby, Ohio), who curled into the left circle and wristed a high shot that found the back of the net to make it 2-0. Herron also picked up an assist after she tipped Geisinger's cross-ice pass in the slot to Bouchie.
Saint Anselm struck again – this time on the power play – at 12:55 when Kazmer sent a quick feed from the right corner to the right circle for Winters, who walked in on Hopps and lifted a high shot into the back of the net for the 3-0 advantage.
The Pilgrims jumped on the board 1:50 later as Annie Griswold slid a pass from the right circle to the right point where Tori Polehonka sent a low shot along the ice that slipped between the right post and the left pad of Saint Anselm freshman goaltender Hannah Synnott (Montclair, N.J.).
Senior Andi Foss (Elko, Minn.) gave the Hawks their three-goal cushion back with 1:54 on the clock when she sent a shot past Hopps from the left circle after Bouchie's shot from the high slot was blocked by an NEC defender right to Foss.
The Pilgrims would not completely go away, however, as Andrea St. Onge took advantage of a Saint Anselm turnover in its own zone when she intercepted the puck in the high slot and beat Synnott high on her stick-side for a shorthanded goal that cut the deficit to 4-2 with just 11.6 seconds remaining in the stanza.
The Hawks picked up where they left off in the first period as freshman Alison Butler (Danvers, Mass.) pulled the puck out of a scrum just inside the blue line and skated to the top of the left circle before wristing a shot past Hopps, who was then pulled in favor of Kelly Metz, just 1:14 in.
NEC pulled back within 5-3 at the 7:35 mark when Mackenzie Meegan collected a Marisa Roth rebound in front and slipped the puck past a diving Synnott for a power-play tally.
Quinn netted her second of the day at 10:13 of the middle stanza as Kazmer won the puck out of traffic at the top of the left circle and quickly touched it to Quinn, who skated in and flipped the puck past Metz short-side to make it 6-3 and kick off a stretch of seven unanswered goals.
Winters netted her second of the contest with 4:25 left in the period as sophomore Halle Kent (Lake Placid, N.Y.) sent a drive from the left point that was blocked by a defender to Kazmer in the slot. Kazmer tapped the puck down low for Winters, who used a sweeping backhand to send it past Metz and stretch the lead to 7-3.
Winters then gained the hat trick on the power play and expanded the gap to five just 2:50 into the third period when she jammed home a loose puck after Metz stopped Kazmer twice at the right post.
Kazmer, who had dished four helpers to that point in the game, then decided to score some goals of her own. She first made it 9-3 at the 6:15 mark when she backhanded the puck in off Metz' right pad at the left post after Galiczewski's shot from the high slot. Winters also was credited with an assist on the play. Kazmer then scored on the power play 2:42 later as she tipped in Bouchie's drive from the high slot at the right post.
The Hawks added another at the 10:45 mark when Herron cleaned up a rebound off a shot from freshman Martha Findley (Duxbury, Mass.) to push the lead to 11-3. The Hawks capped the scoring with 2:59 left when sophomore Nina Gozzi (Suffield, Conn.) skated behind the net and slid a pass in front for classmate Marianne Kristiansen (Anchorage, Alaska), who easily popped it in past new NEC goaltender Arielle Mazzolla.
Synnott stopped seven shots for the Hawks. Hopps made 19 saves in 30:10 of action, Metz turned away 17 shots in 20:32 and Mazzolla stopped seven shots over the final 9:15.
Saint Anselm outshot NEC, 55-10, including 23-0 in the third period. The Hawks were 3-for-7 on the power play, while the Pilgrims went 1-for-4 with the extra skater.
The contest kicked off Saint Anselm ice hockey's annual four-game Pink in the Rink weekend, in which the men's and women's teams raise both money and awareness for breast cancer. This year, the teams are donating all earned monies to the Breast Cancer Research Wing at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester.
The Hawks return to action Saturday, Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. when they continue Pink in the Rink weekend by playing host to Castleton State College at Sullivan. Stay up-to-date with the latest news, including game previews and recaps, directly from the Saint Anselm College athletic department by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter @STAHawks.
