Brittany Ott makes 44 Saves as Maine Falls at Northeastern, 3-1

Myriam Croussette

The University of Maine women's hockey team fell to Northeastern by a score of 3-1 on Sunday afternoon. The loss puts The Black Bears at 15-10-6 overall and 9-8-2 in Hockey East play while Northeastern improves to 21-6-3 overall and 14-3-2 in Hockey East play. Brittany Dougherty (Chesterfield, Mich.) tallied her 16th goal of the season for the Black Bears while netminder Brittany Ott (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) made 44 saves.

The first period saw similar play between the two teams. Maine fired a total of eight shots on net at Northeastern goalie Florence Schelling while the Huskies managed to fire 10 at Black Bear goalie Brittany Ott. Each goalie stopped all the shots they faced, ending the first period in a 0-0 tie. Myriam Croussette (Baie-Comeau, Quebec) helped the Black Bears maintain momentum throughout the period by tallying four shots on goal.

The second period started in similar fashion as the two teams remained tied 0-0 for the first 10:23 of play. Northeastern broke the tie when Colleen Murphy netted the go-ahead goal in a four-on-four situation. Rachel Llanes assisted Murphy on the play. Brittany Ott remained solid in net for Maine, tallying a total of 28 saves on 29 shots through the first two periods of play. One of those saves came on a breakaway from Northeasterns' Kendall Coyne. Coyne, leading scorer for the Huskies, tried to beat Ott low and left; however Ott extended and blocked it with her leg. At the end of two, Northeastern held a 1-0 lead.

Brittany Ott came up big early in the third period when Northeastern's Katie MacSorely fired an off-angled shot at Ott; however Brittany snared it with her glove to end the play. Northeastern tabbed their second goal of the game when defenseman Maggie DiMasi took the puck from her own end and just managed to beat Brittany Ott on her glove side. The Huskies now had a 2-0 lead. Dominique Goutsis (Coquitlam, British Columbia) nearly scored a goal for Maine when she retaliated by firing a shot that Florence Schelling snared with her glove. Maine cut the Northeastern lead in half at 9:12 when Chloe Tinkler (Wabush, Newfoundland) fired a shot at Schelling who made the initial save on the play; however Brittany Dougherty found the rebound and put it away for the Black Bears, making the score 2-1. Tinkler earned her seventh assist of the season on the play. Northeastern regained a two-goal lead when Kendall Coyne snagged a rebound on a shot by Brittany Esposito and found the back of the net at 12:38 in the third period. At the end of three periods of play, Northeastern held on to win, 3-1.

Brittany Ott had a phenomenal game in net for the Black Bears, making a total of 44 saves on the 47 shots that she faced. With the loss, Ott's record falls to 11-9-3 on the season. Florence Schelling made 18 saves on the 19 shots she faced for Northeastern. Her record improves to 19-5-3 on the season. Maine went 0-for-4 on the power play while Northeastern went 0-for-3.

Maine will return home for their last regular season series against New Hampshire next weekend. The first game will take place on Saturday, February 18, at 1 p.m. The final regular season game will start at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Sunday's game is also senior day, honoring the six Black Bear seniors.