After opening the 2022 Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association (CCWHA) ACHA DII Women’s National Championships on Tuesday, March 15th with a 5-2 win over the University of New Hampshire Wildcats, the (1-0) Sault College Cougars took to the ice in St Louis, Missouri against the (0-1) University of Vermont Caramounts for game two on Wednesday, March 16th.
With an unassisted goal to give the Cougars a 1 – 0 lead 5:58 into the first, Marie-Pier Lecours (Sault Ste Marie, ON) finds the back of Caramount goaltender Erin Mathews net. Four seconds past the midway mark of the middle stanza, Sault College’s Erika Beitz sets up Cougar forward Alyssa Turcotte for her first of the championships to bring the lead to 2 – 0 at the 9:56 mark of the period. Firing her third of the championships, Delta, British Columbia’s Emma Lee increases the Cougars lead to 3 – 0 at 12:26 of the second. Olivia Barsanti (Bowmanville, ON) drew the helper on Sault College’s third of the game. Jasmine Groleau (Timmins, ON) scores her second of the championship 8:15 into the second with Jayden Zack (Sault Ste Marie, ON) registering to contributor on Groleau’s goal. Sophia Thibault (Sault Ste Marie, ON) sinks the Cougars fifth of the game with Sault College’s Marie-Pier Lecours adding the assist to bring the lead to 5 – 0 at 4:31 of the third. Kiley Robles finds the back of Cougar netminder Gabriella Corbiere’s (Aundeck Omni Kaning, ON) net for the lone Caramounts goal at 14:39 unassisted. Defenceman Lauren Halcrow scores her first of the championship with 13 seconds remaining in the game to give the Cougars a 2 – 0 lead with Sault College’s sixth of the contest. Groleau and Lecours notched the contributors on Halcrow’s goal. University of Vermont goaltender Erin Mathews stopped 17 of 23 shots in the loss while Sault College netminder Gabriella Coribere turned away 21 of 22 shots in the 6 – 1 win.
Sault College final round robin game will be a battle of two Canadian teams and an all Cougar matchup with the Sault Ste Marie, Ontario Cougars hitting the ice against the Brandon, Manitoba Assiniboine Cougars on Thursday, March 17th in a 12:45 (CST) p.m start.
