No. 7 St. Lawrence (6-1-2) battled No. 5 New Hampshire (7-0-1) to a 2-2 tie at Appleton Arena Saturday afternoon. St. Lawrence took leads of 1-0 and 2-1 but could not hold them.
Both teams were led by outstanding performances by their goaltenders. Jessica Moffat made 35 saves for St. Lawrence and Melissa Bourdon stopped 29 for UNH.
Freshman Sabrina Harbec got the Saints on the board first at 17:28 in the opening period. Junior Tracy Muzerall fed a pass to sophomore Chelsea Grills who fired a shot on the Wildcats net. Harbec blasted the rebound past Bourdon for her fifth goal of the season.
The Wildcats answered back at 4:49 in the second. Nicole Hekle slapped the puck up into the air from the neutral towards the Saints net. Becky Peters knocked it out of the air and past St. Lawrence goaltender Jess Moffat to knot the score at 1-1.
Senior Christin Powers gave the Saints a 2-1 lead at 10:19 in the second with her second of the season. Freshman Annie Guay slipped a pass to sophomore Crystal Connors. Connors fed the puck to Powers in the neutral zone. Powers skated alone into UNH territory and wrested a shot from the point that beat Bourdon.
Stephanie Jones gave UNH new life with 8:01 to go in the final period, scoring her fourth of the season to tie the game at 2-2. Jones fired from down low on the Saints net. Moffat made the initial save but the puck bounced back out. This time Jones put the puck past Moffat for the score. Taylor Palazeti nearly scored the gamewinner with 3:50 left in the game on a breakaway but she was stuffed by Moffat.
In overtime, the Wildcats edged the Saints 3-2 in shots but the game ended knotted up.
St. Lawrence went 0-of-7 on the power-play and UNH went 1-of-8.
The Saints and the Wildcats will battle Sunday afternoon in the rematch at Appleton Arena. The puck is set to drop at 2:00 p.m.
