SHELTON, Conn. – An early 2-1 lead was not enough, as the Sacred Heart women's ice hockey team fell victim to four unanswered St. Michael's goals in the first round of the New England Hockey Conference Open Tournament on Wednesday night at the Sports Center of Connecticut. The loss means SHU ends its campaign 12-13-2 overall, the most wins for the Pioneers since the 2012-13 season.

After Erin Dwyer opened the scoring for St. Michael's 4:44 into the game, Sacred Heart came back to take the lead before the first intermission. Heather Daley first tied it up when she tipped in a Haley Payne shot from the point with 8:21 remaining. Payne had skated back towards the blue line to collect the puck before turning around and firing it towards the net.  Daley then teamed with Teagan Ketchum to set up Payne 5:27 later. After Daley's initial shot was saved, Payne was able to poke the puck past SMC goalie Abby Burke in the ensuing scramble to put the Pioneers on top 2:54 ahead of the intermission. The goals were number seven on the year for both Daley and Payne.

SHU had the first major opportunity of the second period three minutes in when Casey Stathopoulos won a face off back to Taylor Moreland. Her shot ricocheted off of Burke's shoulder straight down to Stathopoulos, who was then denied point blank. This proved important five and a half minutes later when the Purple Knights tied it. Nicole Magee had done well to deny a breakaway moments before but a Pioneer penalty gave SMC its first power play of the evening, which it took advantage when Carolyn Avery knocked in Lauren Cuculino's rebound to even the score with 11:33 left in the second.

The final three unanswered goals came in the third, with all three scored unassisted. Dwyer broke the deadlock in a spectacular individual effort while on the penalty kill early on in the final period. Her initial shot from the right circle was saved, but she skated around the back of net and stole the puck from a Pioneer before wrapping around to beat Magee for her second goal of the game with 15:24 remaining. 

Sacred Heart had its opportunities to tie it with the next two shots after the score, but it was Amanda Kempainen adding insurance and doubling up the Purple Knights' lead just over nine minutes later. Entering her zone on the right side, she skated around multiple defenders all the way to the front of net before depositing the puck into the left side of the net to make the score 4-2 with 6:08 showing.

Once again, SHU had two shots on net in an effort to make it a one-goal game, but Burke kept the lead in tact, and SMC would all but seal it with an empty netter from Ashley Dineen just 49 seconds before the final buzzer.

In what was an evenly matched game, Sacred Heart had two more shots than St. Michael's, 30-28, forcing Burke to make 28 saves in the victory. Magee stopped 23 of 27 shots in the loss. Both teams had three power play opportunities, with the Purple Knights converting one of three on the game-tying score in the second. 

SMC's first goal came after Tori Dinger beat a SHU defender to the puck just inside the offensive zone and sent a centering pass from the right to Dwyer. Skating in one-on-one with Magee, Dwyer made a deke before sending it into the back of the net for the early lead.