Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass. – Seniors Grace Murphy (Montclair, Va.) and Alyssa Bufis (Linden, N.J.) potted their second goals of the season as the Nichols College women's ice hockey team defeated New England College 2-1 in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's East action Friday evening at Levy Rink.

This is the first win in nine all-time meetings for the Bison against the Pilgrims.

The Bison tallied their first goal at 2:05 of the third period. Senior Talia Hohmann (Marina, Calif.) skated behind the net and passed it short to Murphy, who fired a shot high on the short side (glove) for the goal.

Nichols (3-4-0, 1-4-0 ECAC East) tallied its first short-handed goal of the season at 13:56. Sophomore Megan Servaes (Houston, Texas) skated with the puck in her own zone before falling down in front of senior goaltender Lauren Hopps (Green Bay, Wis.). Bufis slid in and backhanded a shot into the left side of the net to make the score 2-0.

NEC (0-7-0, 0-5-0 ECAC East) scored its first goal in four games at 16:04 of the third stanza when sophomore Mackenzie Meegan (Phoenix, Ariz.) took a shot from the right wing boards that was saved by senior netminder Tori Gianformaggio (Huntington Beach, Calif.). Sophomore Alexis Severance (Seekonk, Mass.) pounced on the rebound and slid a pass to senior Aubrey Fischer (Syracuse, N.Y.) at the left post, who put the puck into the empty left side of the net.

While the game remained scoreless until the third period, both teams had their chances early on. Hohmann took a pass from Murphy between the circles and fired a shot that clanged off the cross bar with 5:20 to go in the first period. NEC junior Andrea St. Onge (Garden Grove, Calif.) fired a shot early in the second period while wide open in front of Gianformaggio that the Bison goaltender was able to chorale between her right arm and body. Hohmann added another great opportunity later in the period when she took it away from the Pilgrims forward in the Bison zone, broke up the left wing boards and went in alone from the blue line. She attempted a shot through the five-hole but she was turned away by Hopps.

Gianformaggio stopped 40 shots to improve to 3-3-0 on the year. Hopps made 25 saves and fell to 0-6-0 on the season.

Murphy paced the Bison with six shots while Fischer produced a game-high seven shots for the Pilgrims.

"It was a gutty win for our girls," said Nichols second-year head coach Wil Brown. "We had to play 60 minutes of hockey against a good NEC team."

The Bison travel to take on conference foe St. Anselm Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The Pilgrims host Plymouth State Saturday at 1:00 p.m.