Quinnipiac women’s hockey tops UMaine in season-opener

ORONO, Maine –  The Quinnipiac University women’s ice hockey team reached the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Despite losing five of their top eight scorers and their workhorse goalie off last year’s 25-11-1 team, the 10th-ranked Bobcats showed that they are again going to be an NCAA tourney contender by beating the University of Maine 7-0 at Alfond Arena on Friday night.

The teams conclude their series at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Quinnipiac (Conn.) is now 8-0-1 in its last nine games against UMaine.

It was a mutual season-opener and marked the first time fans have had to pay to attend a UMaine women’s ice hockey game.

A crowd of 601 fans showed up which is nearly double the average estimated attendance of 345 at last year’s games.

“That’s the first thing I noticed when we stepped in here today was just how many people were here,” said Quinnipiac coach Cassandra Turner, who is in her 10th season behind the Bobcat bench. “It’s awesome to play with that kind of crowd. It’s amazing.”

Quinnipiac graduate student defenseman and captain Kendall Cooper and UMaine sophomore defenseman Sophia Johnson agreed.

“It makes for a better atmosphere and it’s a lot more fun to play in that atmosphere,” said Cooper.

“To have that many people here was cool,” said Johnson. “That was a super big crowd.”

The Bobcats wasted little time establishing their superiority against a UMaine team that has never qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

They had the game’s first 12 shots on net and took a 1-0 lead on senior left wing Maya Labad’s goal 6:38 into the game.

The Bobcats established a relentless forecheck in which they kept the puck in the UMaine zone for nearly two minutes.

Eventually, Labad, a 13-goal scorer last season, jammed the puck past UMaine sophomore goalie Julia Bachetti from close-range to the goalie’s left.

Bachetti had made six saves during that extended forecheck.

Bachetti kept the Black Bears in the game but was victimized by a flukey goal with two minutes left in the period when freshman defenseman Makayla Watson took a high shot from the point that Bachetti batted high in the air.

The puck landed in a crowded goalmouth and rolled into the net.

The youthful Black Bears were at a distinct disadvantage experience-wise with 12 freshmen and sophomores in their lineup compared to Quinnipiac’s six and with just six players with at least 70 career games under their belts compared to Quinnipiac’s 12.

But the Black Bears came out much better in the second period and carried the play early.

Graduate student Quinnipiac goalie Kaley Doyle, a Brown University transfer, made some good saves as the Black Bears had six of the first nine shots of the period.

But it was the Bobcats who found the net at the 9:17 mark when a loose puck squirted out from the corner into the crease.

Bachetti dove out to corral it but it bounced free and freshman Bryn Prier swatted it home from just outside the crease.

The Bobcats sewed up the win with goals 1:42 apart in the last two minutes of the period when graduate students Sophie Urban and Kathryn Stockdale scored with wrist shots from the slot.

Labad and sophomore Kahlen Lamarche added third-period scores.

Urban, Prier and Watson had assists to go with their goals.

Doyle finished with 20 saves while Bachetti had 25.

“I was happy with our team’s effort,” said Turner. “Maine certainly put pressure on us but Kaley Doyle stepped up. Without her, it could have been a different score.”

“With a lot of new players, we’re still trying to find some combinations but I thought everyone contributed really well,” said Cooper. “Maine is good. They battle hard. Hockey East is obviously a good league.”

UMaine head coach Molly Engstrom was pleased with the crowd and said “this is definitely the direction we want to be going in (attendance-wise).

“I told the girls this isn’t easy. This is a reality check against the No. 10 team in the country,” Engstrom added. “This is what real hockey is like.

“We had some good spurts, we had some really good spurts. But we have to be tougher in the defensive zone and protect our goalie. They’ve got to get mentally tougher and build some resiliency,” Engstrom added. “They all have to raise the bar a little bit.”

Sophomore left wing Raegan Wurm had a game-high and career-high five shots on goal for UMaine and senior defenseman Jamie Grinder had a game-high four blocked shots.