Over the weekend, the University of Rhode Island women’s club hockey team took on Michigan State University after a pair of defeats against the University of Massachusetts Amherst last weekend.
Rhode Island took a 3-0 loss on Friday night. The Rams poured 32 shots on goal, as their offense created multiple scoring chances throughout the game.
“I’m proud of the team for being resilient in the third [period],” URI Assistant Coach Curtis Richall said. “We kept them to five shots the whole time, so it’s easy being down 3-0 going into the third to kind of roll over. But we supported our goalie, and we played the right way.”
On Saturday night’s rematch, the Rams had a lot of fire entering this game and ended up winning 3-1 with a stellar performance in net once again by third-year goaltender Morgan Ainley with 51 saves.
With under a minute remaining in the first period, first-year Neve Brierton scored her fourth goal of the season, assisted by third-year Isabella Bonfiglio, to carry some momentum into the second period with a 1-0 lead.
46 seconds into the second period, third-year Penny Spack scored her fifth goal of the season, assisted by first-year Brenna Vitelli.
“One thing our team is thankful for is our goalies,” third-year captain Claire Falcone said. “All our goalies are amazing, and we thrive off our goaltending abilities in order to win games.”
The game was 2-1 with 3:59 left in the third period, but with 36 seconds left in the game, Spack would put the game away with an empty net goal assisted by Falcone.
“I feel our defense works hard all the time,” fourth-year Jill Johannes said. “As a defenseman myself, I feel that our group puts 100% into every shift we have. Michigan was good at using their bodies to protect the puck, so we had a tough battle.”
With two games left of the season, women’s hockey hopes to finish its year strong when the Rams travel to Amherst, Mass., as they face off again against UMass at the Mullins Center.
