WINCHENDON, Mass. (January 21, 2022) -- The Franklin Pierce University women's ice hockey team returned to game action on Friday night for the first time in more than a month, with one of its most important weekends of the season on tap, to boot. The Ravens did not miss a beat. Senior Emme Ostrander (Westborough, Mass.) stopped all 30 shots on her goal and freshman Geno Hendrickson (Warroad, Minn.) provided the second-period game-winner, as Franklin Pierce dealt visiting Sacred Heart a 3-0 loss at the Jason Ritchie Ice Arena, to open a pivotal New England Women's Hockey Alliance weekend set.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 10-8-1 (6-3-0 NEWHA), while Sacred Heart falls to 10-9-1 (5-3-1 NEWHA). The two teams will wrap up the weekend series on Saturday, with a 7 p.m. puck drop at Jason Ritchie Ice Arena.

The first period went without goals, but not without chances, as both goalies turned aside breakaway attempts and the teams combined for 24 shots. The Ravens were outshot 14-10 in the opening stanza, but turned the tables by posting an 11-6 edge in the second frame.

Still, it took until the final three minutes of the middle period before anybody could find the net. It was Hendrickson who finally broke the seal, with an individual effort on the right side. The freshman applied pressure and forced a turnover along the goal line, then curled through the right circle and into the slot. Hendrickson took the shot from there and buried her fourth of the season at 17:26.

The game would stay stuck on 1-0 into its closing moments. Sacred Heart called its timeout and pulled the goaltender in favor of the extra attacker with 1:47 to play. Ostrander was forced to make only one save against the ensuing 6-on-5, as she turned aside sophomore Paige McNeil, before the Ravens put the game on ice. Hendrickson and junior Cassidy Jones (Stillwater, Minn.) combined to work the puck ahead to junior Becca Kniss (Eden Prairie, Minn.) in the neutral zone. Kniss had the angle to gain the far blue line and send the puck into the yawning cage at 19:16, for her fourth of the season.

Sophomore Brooke Remington (Scandia, Minn.) created the 3-0 final with some high-caliber stickhandling, which culminated in her seventh of the season at 19:42, assisted by junior Ava Kison (Eau Claire, Wis.), who got a stick to the puck on the play as well. Remington took control in the neutral zone, put the puck off the right-side boards to herself to beat one defender, gained the zone, split a pair of Pioneers in the right circle, powered out front, and used the backhand to tuck the puck around the pad of senior netminder Frankie Sanchez and inside the left post to cap the scoring.

Ostrander (4-6-0) tallied 30 saves to chalk up her fourth shutout of the season, as well as the 16^th of her career, which extends her own program record. Sanchez (7-9-1) finished with 26 saves against 28 shots in the losing effort for Sacred Heart.