Photo Bob Davies
The Sault College Cougars women’s hockey program hit the road for a fourteen hour bus ride to St Louis, Missouri with their 2021 – 2022 (10-5-1) regular season record to take part in the 2022 Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association (CCWHA) ACHA DII Women’s National Championships from March 15 – 19 for a chance at their first women’s championship in the school’s hockey history with their first matchup hitting the ice on Tuesday, March 15th against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
At 18:31 into their first game in Missouri, Jasmine Groleau (Timmins, ON) finds the back of Wildcat goaltender Kristin Weiland net to give the Cougars a 1 – 0 lead with Jaydin Zack (Sault Ste Marie, ON) adding the lone helper on Grolueau powerplay goal to give Sault College a 1 – 0 lead. 20 seconds late with nine second remaining in the period, Kayleigh Butler sends New Hampshire into the first intermission tied 1 – 1 with a Wildcat goal behind Cougar netminder Gabriella Corbiere (Aundeck Omni Kaning, ON) at the 18:51 mark. Kendall Boniecki setup Butler’s tying goal for the Wildcats. Erika Beitz (Desbarats) fires the go-ahead goal 3:36 into the second period to give the Cougars a 2 – 1 lead with Lauren Halcrow drawing the helpers on Beitz’s goal. Delta, British Columbia’s Emma Lee added to Sault College’s to bring the lead to 3 – 1 with a Cougar unassisted goal at 12:31 of the middle stanza. At 16:26 of the second, Sault Ste Marie’s Kaitlyn Lambert Mousseau sends the Cougars into the second intermission up 4 – 1 with a pass from Kenora, Ontario forward Alyssa Turcotte. 35 seconds past the halfway mark of the final period, Sara Carleo sinks New Hampshires second goal behind Gabriella Corbiere to pull the Wildcats with two at the 9:25 mark. All alone in front of the Wildcats net, Emma Lee slides the Cougars fifth under Kristin Weiland for her second of the game to give Sault College a 5 – 2 win over the Wildcats. Borden, Ontario’s Meagan Daley registers the contributor on Lee’s goal at 17:05. New Hampshire’s goaltender Kristin Weiland stopped 24 of 29 shots in the 5 – 3 loss while Cougar netminder Gabriella Corbiere made 16 saves in Sault College’s opening win in St Louis.
Cougar coach Brianne Veale told Saultsports that “We had a great start to the week with everyone playing aggressive and finding the net. We need to continue to be smart with the puck and take control of the game early to be successful.”
The Cougars next opponents will be the University of Vermont Caramounts on Wednesday, March 16th in a 5:30 (CST) p.m start in Missouri.
The Cougars cross border rivals, the Lake Superior State Lakers opened the ACHA DII Nationals with a 22 – 1 win over the Villanova University Wildcats on Tuesday, March 15th. The Lakers are back in action on Wednesday, March 16th against the Rowan University Profs from Glassboro, New Jersey with a puck drop at 1:00 (CST) p.m.
