Sacred Heart Edges Southern Maine in OT, 2-1

            GORHAM, Maine -- Sophomore Brittany Smith (Manchester, Mass.) scored her first goal of the season at 1:03 of overtime to give the visiting Sacred Heart University Pioneers a 2-1 victory over the University of Southern Maine Huskies in a non-conference women's ice hockey game Wednesday afternoon at the USM Ice Arena.

            The win gave the Pioneers a sweep of the two-game series, and lifted their overall record to .500 for the first time this season at 5-5-2.  The Huskies dropped their fourth straight game to slip to 2-9-1 overall.

            In overtime, Smith earned the puck deep in the USM zone, curled into the left-wing circle and snapped a shot that USM sophomore goalie Courtney Davis (Woburn, Mass.) got a piece of with her left pad.  The puck trickled up over Davis' pad and dropped just over the goal line for the game winner.

            Southern Maine forced the game into extra time with its only goal of the series at 7:49 of the third period.  Senior Kaleigh Heath (Jericho, Vt.) closed down from the blue line to take a pass out from the end boards by junior Katie Couture (Harrisville, R.I.) and beat SHU senior goalie Amanda Fontaine (Northfield, Mass.) for her first marker of the season.  Junior Lynn Kozlowski (Stoneham, Mass.) also assisted on the play.

            Sacred Heart, despite being outshot 9-1 in the opening period, scored the only goal of the opening 20 minutes.  Senior Heather Daley (Brewster, N.Y.) took a pass out from behind the net by classmate Casey Stathopoulos (Waltham, Mass.) and deposited her shot behind Davis for a 1-0 lead.

            Fontaine came up big in the opening period as USM was awarded four power plays.  The Huskies were unable to take advantage of the extra skater, including a 32-second stint being up two skaters.

            In the scoreless second period, it would be the Pioneers who enjoyed the extra skater getting three power-play opportunities, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:41.  Davis and the Husky penalty-kill unit did an outstanding job to keep the score at 1-0.

            Southern Maine finished the game with a 21-16 advantage in shots on goal.  Fontaine stopped 20 shots to pick up her first win of the season.  Davis made 14 saves.

            The Huskies are off until next Tuesday (7:00 p.m.) when they travel to Bowdoin College for a non-conference game.  After an off day, Sacred Heart will open play in the DoubleTree Ice Hockey Classic, hosted by St. Michael's College, against Plymouth State University on Friday (4:00 p.m.). 

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