HARRISVILLE, R.I. (Jan. 29) – Led by a hat trick from first-year forward Rosemarie Giarrusso, the Saint Anselm College women’s ice hockey team skated past host Nichols College, 8-0, in a Friday night ECAC Women’s East matchup at June Rockwell Levy Rink. The Hawks improve to 10-6-1 overall and 8-3-1 in conference action, while the Bison fall to 2-12-2 overall and 2-9-2 in conference play.
Saint Anselm got on the board at 3:53 of the first period on Bridget Sylvester connected on a pass from Ciara Petry and fired from the right circle over the shoulder of Nichols goaltender Melanie Spears (Woburn, Mass.). Maria Dougherty set up the play to earn the second assist.
Dougherty passed across the goal line from below the right circle on the power play to find Sarah Ellins crashing on the left side at 10:37, and Ellins sent the puck in high on the opposite side for a 2-0 lead.
Sylvester potted her second of the night and sparked a four-goal middle frame for the Hawks just 15 seconds into the second stanza with a short-handed tally off an assist from Aly Zappen.
Ellins poked in a loose puck into the open left side of the net on the power play after Dougherty slipped it across the netfront amongst a scrum at the 5:28 mark of the middle frame to edge the Hawks ahead, 4-0. Molly Corl fired the original shot that found Dougherty’s stick off the rebound.
Melissa Mansfield (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) took over in net and made 11 saves in the remainder of the frame, but could not stop Giarrusso, who scored at the 12:06 mark. Corl picked up a power-play marker with 1:03 left in the frame to give the Hawks a 6-0 advantage headed into the second intermission.
With a two-skater advantage early in the third, Giarrusso scored her second of the game by banking in a shot off of Mansfield’s skate after getting a go-ahead pass from Angela Zevnik at 3:30.
Giarrusso completed the hat trick with 5:17 left to play when she hammered in a rebound off a shot by Aly Zappen.
Candice Ellis (Gloucester, Mass.) had a pair of excellent opportunities for the Bison, the first on a breakaway in the opening frame. She skated in on the left and dangled the puck across the crease before firing, but Hawks netminder Carley Berry was up to the task. In the middle frame, Ellis tried to finish off a two-on-one with a backhander but was again denied by Berry.
Spears made 29 saves and allowed four goals in the opening 25 minutes before bowing out to Mansfield, who finished with 27 saves. Berry made 17 saves to improve to 3-2-0 on the season.
Nichols travels to New England College for a 4 p.m. ECAC East game on Saturday, while Saint Anselm takes on Holy Cross in Worcester Saturday in a 7 p.m. ECAC East game.
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