Mikayla Kelley

Women’s Ice Hockey Scores Twice in Third to Bounce Back with 2-1 Win at Sacred Heart

SHELTON, Conn. (November 19, 2022) -- Staring a possible weekend sweep square in the face through two periods on the road, the Franklin Pierce University women's ice hockey team put together a third-period rally on Saturday afternoon at Sports Center of Connecticut. Sophomore Mikayla Kelley (Eagan, Minn.) levelled things on the power play just 61 seconds into the frame, and freshman Avery Farrell (Otsego, Minn.) notched the winner at 12:20, as the Ravens slipped past Sacred Heart, 2-1, to force a split of the New England Women's Hockey Alliance weekend series.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 5-7-1 (4-3-1 NEWHA), while Sacred Heart falls to 5-9-1 (5-5-1 NEWHA). Sacred Heart will make the return trip to Franklin Pierce for a pair of games on Feb. 3-4.

As it did on Friday, the first period went scoreless on Saturday afternoon. Sacred Heart opened the scoring with a power-play marker at the 12:17 mark of the second stanza. From the blue line, graduate student Kelly Solak sent the puck down low on the right side for junior Paige McNeil. McNeil found a seam to the top of the crease and slipped a pass through to graduate student Delani Mackay, who had the one-time finish on her team-leading eighth of the season.

The Pioneers took the 1-0 lead into the intermission, but Franklin Pierce answered with a power-play tally of its own just 1:01 into the third. After backtracking into her own end to retrieve the puck, senior Stefanie Caban (Fitchburg, Mass.) handed off to Kelley, who did the rest. Kelley went coast-to-coast with the puck, and snapped home her third of the year from the right circle after gaining the zone.

The game stayed stuck on 1-1 into the back half of the third, when Farrell found her second game-winning goal of the season. It was an all-freshman 2-on-1 through the neutral zone and into the offensive end. Farrell started with the puck on the right side and played give-and-go with McKenzie Rich (Rochester, Minn.) on the left wing. Farrell capped the rush with her team-leading fifth goal of the campaign, at 12:20.

Freshman Jill Hertl (Highland Park, Ill.) made 19 saves against 20 shots to pick up the win (4-3-1) in the Franklin Pierce crease, as the Ravens did a much better job on the shooting front on Saturday, to the tune of a 32-20 advantage. Junior Molly Elmore (3-4-1) stopped 30 of 32 shots at the other end of the ice for Sacred Heart.

The Ravens head out of conference next weekend, for a home-and-home with Hockey East foe Holy Cross on Nov. 26-27. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Franklin Pierce and 5 p.m. on Sunday at Holy Cross.