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            GORHAM, Maine -- Senior Lauren Fontaine (Windsor, Ontario) scored a pair of second-period goals and rookie goalie Alexius Schutt (Elk River, Minn.) stopped 35 shots as the Sacred Heart University Pioneers overcame a one-goal deficit to defeat the University of Southern Maine Huskies, 2-1, in a non-conference game Wednesday afternoon at the USM Ice Arena.

            The win gave the Division I independent Pioneers a split of the teams' two-game series and snapped a four-game losing skid.  The Pioneers improved to 3-14-0 on the season.  The Huskies had their two-game win streak stopped and fall to 3-7-1 overall.

            Trailing 1-0, Fontaine provided the Pioneers with the equalizer at 5:02 of the middle stanza converting a pass from sophomore Megan Murphy (Holden, Mass.).  Eight minutes later, Fontaine scored her second goal, and third of the season, beating USM freshman goalie Jordan Lee (Colorado Springs, Colo.) from 25 feet out.  The senior forward had five points (2g, 3a) in the series to go over the 100-career point plateau (60g, 43a).

            Schutt protected the lead the rest of the way as the Huskies pressed the offense looking for a tying goal.  Schutt had 16 saves in the final period, including outstanding stops on USM sophomore Kailey Bubier (Auburn, Maine) and rookie Shannon Cronin (Wakefield, Mass.). 

            Looking for the tying goal, the Huskies pulled Lee (27 saves) in the final minute, but were unable score as they had in the opening game of the series to force overtime.  The win was the third of the season for Schutt.

            Southern Maine got its only score of the game at 13:59 of the first period when senior Mary Vaughan (Brunswick, Maine) carried the puck into the SHU zone and beat Schutt from the right wing circle for an unassisted goal.

            The Huskies are back in action on Saturday (1:00 p.m.) when they host Bowdoin College for a non-conference game.  The Pioneers will play SUNY Cortland on Saturday (5:15 p.m.) in the opening round of the Nutmeg Classic in Hamden, Conn.

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