Rivier Squeaks Past Women's Ice Hockey, 3-2

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The MCLA Women's Ice Hockey team looked to wrap up the home portion of their schedule in the program's first year of existence. The Trailblazers entered the game locked into the fourth seed in the ECHA playoffs that will begin next week, but they still had the opportunity to play spoiler with the three teams ahead of them all tightly clumped together, including Saturday night's opponent Rivier, who was tied for second with Anna Maria at 12 points. MCLA's Carlen Bertrand scored a goal and assisted on another, but three different Raiders scored goals, and Rivier took the first game of the back-to-back series.

THE BASICS:

• Date: Saturday, February 16, 2024
• Score: Rivier 3, MCLA 2
• Records: Rivier University Raiders 11-9-3 (ECHA 6-3-2) | MCLA Trailblazers 4-18-1 (ECHA 0-10-1)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Following a scoreless first period, MCLA was the first one to break through, scoring on the power play with 3:43 off the second-period clock. Summer Bissaillion did the deed, slamming home a one-timer from the right faceoff dot off a pass from Carlen Bertrand. Bertrand and Natasha Lozowchuk were credited with their fourth and sixth assists, respectively. The goal was Bissaillion's third.
• The lead wouldn't last long as Rivier responded with a power-play goal of their own a bit over two minutes later. Jessica Driscoll (at 6:00, assisted by Tia Picardi and Brianna Parent), so the teams went into the second intermission with the same score differential as they had after the scoreless first period.
• The Raiders' Mason Puumala (2:51, Heather McHatton and Molly Hurley) broke the tie less than three minutes into the third when she scored her first goal of the season and the game's first even-strength goal.
• Bertrand came through with an equalizer for the Trailblazers about four and a half minutes later. Bissaillion picked up the puck on the defensive end, skated through the neutral zone, and dumped the puck into the corner. She then followed the puck into the corner and battled to get it to Alexandrea Bednar, who passed it out to Bertrand for a wrister from the right point into the left side of the goal. The goal was Bertrand's fifth of the year, while the assists were Bissaillion and Bednar's second and eighth.
• Rivier took the lead right back a bit over a minute later when Brianna Parent (8:33, Rebecca McKelvey and Caeli Reed) with what would end up being the game-winning goal.
• The Raider's Rachel Hinkley earned the win to move to 4-1-1 after stopping 26 of 28 shots, while Katie O'Brien recorded 36 saves but saw her record fall to 1-5-0.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Shots: Rivier 39, MCLA 28
• Saves: Rivier 26, MCLA 36
• Faceoffs Won: Rivier 40, MCLA 24
• Penalty/Minutes: Rivier 3/6:00, MCLA 1/2:00
• Power Plays: Rivier 1 for 1, MCLA 1 for 3

UP NEXT:

On Sunday, MCLA will be back in action when they travel to Rivier for an ECHA re-match with the Raiders at the Tsongas Arena. The puck will drop at 2 p.m.

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