The Massachusetts women’s club hockey team hosted the Utah Utes Friday night in a tough 5-1 victory.
The Minutewomen (5-4) faced the Utes (5-4) at the Mullins Center Community Rink in a defensively difficult game. UMass went into the game after winning its previous series against Davenport. With seven total penalties, the Minutewomen had to fight for their third straight victory.
“I think we started a little slow, but we started to play the right way pretty quickly. We recognize [Utah’s] a strong team and we played strong. We had a good game.” head coach Bill Wright said. “We definitely put in a strong effort today, we had some girls going really well, Danielle Craig had a great game, and her line, Brianna O’Neill, and Hannah Gromko.”
Craig scored two goals and had an assist during Friday’s game. Her first goal, which was unassisted, came within the first 60 seconds of the game. Her second was put into the back of the net with 19.3 seconds left in the first period.
Craig’s performance didn’t end with her goal scoring. To open the scoring in the second period, she slid the puck to Gromko who shot underneath Utah’s goalie to secure UMass its fourth goal.
“I feel good, it was my first multiple point game of the season, so I feel good about it,” Craig said. “I feel like I needed that one… I think we had a good game, this was a big weekend for us, rankings wise cause we played some hard teams at the beginning of the season, so it definitely feels good to help out my team.”
Although the Minutewomen faced some difficulty in retrieving the puck back from Utah’s grasp, they still ended the game with 51 shots on goal. This number is a slight increase from last weekend’s series against Davenport, showing UMass’ offensive strength. Mary Honan had 39 total saves over the course of the game for the Minutewomen.
The aggressive nature of the game started from the first period, with two of the Utes’ players being sent to the penalty box. In the second period, the Minutewomen began to follow. UMass’ aggressive side was on display Friday with two out of its four penalties being for roughing.
The third period consisted of 20 minutes of the Minutewomen’s defense showing their best performance, clearing the puck from their side of the ice to Utah’s. Offensively, this led to the most shots on goal within a frame of play.
Within this same frame, UMass allowed the Utes to shoot on its goal the most, with a total of 15 shots on goal. Comparatively in the second period, Utah shot 13 times at Honan’s goal and 12 times in the first period.
“It’s nice now that we’ve seen [Utah] once, right? Like it’s hard to judge a team before you see them play,” Wright said. “We don’t get to play them 10 times a year, we play them twice. Now that we know what they’re all about we’ll be preparing better for a better start [Saturday].”
UMass hopes to keep their winning streak going in their next game as they plan to take on the Utes once again. The Minutewomen will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 11:20 a.m. in the Mullins Center Community Rink.
Emma Bensley can be reached at @[email protected].
