Dec. 17, 2008
Box Score
Fairfield, CT-The Sacred Heart women's ice hockey team defeated Robert Morris for the first time in school history, 4-3 Wednesday afternoon. Nicole Palazzo (Rocky Hill, CT) and Jamie Mey (Middletown, RI) both scored for the Pioneers in the third period. Sacred Heart also got a stellar effort from freshman goaltender Amanda Nagel (Greenwood, MN) who made 39 saves, including several spectacular game savers.
The Pioneers (5-9-0) and the Colonials (8-9-1) battled to a scoreless tie at the end of one period and each put 13 shots on goal. Nagel made the play of the period robbing Sara O'Malley with a glove save after the forward found herself alone in the slot.
Sacred Heart scored the first goal of the game on a Kate Dunlop (Flesherton, ON) power play marker. The goal came as Palazzo was released from serving a penalty to help create a 3 on 1 break. Dunlop wound up and put the puck over the right shoulder of Colonial goaltender Daneca Butterfield. Gina Arnone (Bridgewater, NJ) extended the lead to 2-0 with a beautiful move in front after gathering a loose puck. Arnone now has 99 career points, ranking her third on SHU's all time list.
Robert Morris responded just 21 seconds later to cut the Pioneer lead in half. O'Malley then tied the game three minutes later as she was able to put a backhand past Nagel. The Pioneers were on the attack early in the third period when Robert Morris appeared to commit a tripping penalty. However, there was no call and the puck squirted out to Palazzo who fired a wrist shot over the glove of the goaltender to put the Pioneers on top 3-2. Mey tipped in what would prove to be the game winning goal with eight minutes to play as Tara Kent sent in a centering pass from the left circle.
The Colonials again answered back as Brianna Delaney scored just 33 seconds after Mey's tally. With time winding down Jackie Galvin (Canton, MA) took a vicious elbow from Jenny Monteleone. Galvin was able to get up and Monteleone was sent to the penalty box with just five minutes to play. The Colonials began attempting to pull their goalie with approximately 1:30 on the clock. The Pioneers were able to dump the puck into the RMU end several times and the Colonials could not get the extra skater on the ice until there were just 43 ticks remaining. Taryn Lapierre (Oakland, RI) won a faceoff in the Pioneer end with seven seconds to play to seal the upset win for Sacred Heart.
The Pioneers were outshot 42-31 and 14-6 in the frantic second period. Sacred Heart won the special teams battle going 1-7 on the power play and gave Robert Morris three one-man advantage opportunities.
After the game Mey commented, “After the second period yesterday, we knew we could play with them. We were missing a few of our starters today but that just motivated us and made us work even harder.” Head coach Tom O'Malley was very proud of his team after the win. “We were able to apply good pressure on the forecheck and took advantage of the mistakes they made. I'm very proud of the girls, we played three full periods of good hockey today.”
The Pioneers will return to action for a weekend series against RIT January 2-3. The series will be at the Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport, CT. Game time is 7:00 Friday night and 2:00 Saturday afternoon.
