Box Score

BOSTON, Mass. – Sophomore Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.) extended her point-scoring streak to four games with a pair of power-play goals less than a minute apart as the Nichols College women's ice hockey team skated to a 2-2 tie at Mass.-Boston. With the tie, the Bison (3-14-1) pick up a valuable point in the ECAC Women's East standings as the squad moved to 1-9-1 in conference play while the Beacons notched their third stalemate of the season for an overall record of 7-9-3 and a 4-5-3 ledger in league action.
 
The hosts dented the scoreboard first as sophomore Emily Howard (Terryville, Conn.) deposited a feed from Sophomore Angela Dandreo (Swampscott, Mass.) at 5:26 in the opening frame. Toward the end of the stanza, the Beacons were called for a pair of infractions setting up a 5-on-3 power play goal by Murphy at 19:32. The forward deposited a shot from the left circle to the stick side of the Beacon backstop as classmate Lisa Coskren (Norwood, Mass.) was credited with the helper.
 
Following the intermission, Nichols had :44 left with extra personnel as Murphy buried Coskren's rebound shot to put the Bison on top 2-1 just :30 into the second.
 
Sophomore Kelsey MacIsaac (Durham, N.H.), who scored in the previous meeting between the two squads, evened the game for good with her third tally of the season with help from classmate Dylan Caron (Burrillville, R.I.).
 
Junior goaltender Francesca Palazzo (Bernardston, Mass.) withstood 14 shots – including five on the power play – in the third period to keep the game even. Overall, Palazzo made a game-high 38 stops while sophomore Kaitlyn Burke (Franklin, Mass.) turned away 19 for the Beacons.
 
Nichols went 2-for-4 on the power play including a 5-on-3 marker as the hosts went 0-for-1.

"The team played a strong overall game, capitalized on their chances and took care of the defensive zone," remarked head coach Jillian Campbell. "Francesca made some big saves for us and our power plays units were able to create some offense and find the back of the net. We played as a team and executed our systems which enabled us to get the tie."
  
Both squads are back on the ice at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. Nichols heads to Manchester, N.H. to face St. Anselm while the Beacons host #8 Manhattanville.

Photo courtesy Tori Pizzuto, Mass.-Boston '14