Sacred Heart University Department of Athletics
Wesleyan
Pioneers Hold Off Wesleyan, 4-2
1/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey
Jan. 24, 2006
Middletown, CT - Freshman Gina Arnone (Bridgewater, NJ) tallied one goal and two assists as the Pioneers women's hockey team held off Wesleyan, 4-2, Tuesday night in Middletown, CT. Arnone increased her team lead in scoring having now tallied 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 total points.
Sacred Heart jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Arnone fed a pass to freshman Jaclyn Rideout (Wilmington, MA) for the game's first shot 3:20 into the first period.
Junior Michelle Panella (Marlboro, NJ) scored her 14th goal of the season early in the second period, just eight seconds after a Wesleyan penalty expired, to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.
Wesleyan freshman Becca Mandel netted the first goal of her career at 6:48 of the second stanza off a feed from sophomore Jessica Fischer to cut the lead in half. However, Pioneer sophomore Sarah Hickman (Amherst, MA) connected on the power-play at the 12:08 mark to put the cushion back to two.
Wesleyan countered as Fischer picked up a loose puck on the left side and skated into the middle before sending a shot back to the long side along the ice to make it 3-2.
Sacred Heart padded the lead again when Wesleyan failed to clear the puck after surviving another short-handed situation and first-year Whitney Dziama (Walpole, MA) collared the puck just inside the blue line, sending a pass ahead to Arnone who deked around Wesleyan goalie first-year Rachel Stemerman at the rightpost for the score with 6:16 to play.
Stemerman finished the game with 40 saves as Sacred Heart enjoyed a 44-21 edge in shots. Pioneer goaltender Stephanie Boulay (Anchorage, AK) made 19 saves in goal to secure the victory.
The Pioneers (9-8-3) are back on the ice Saturday afternoon when they open a two game series against Rhode Island. Face off at the Milford Ice Pavilion is set for 3:00 pm.
