The University of Maine’s women’s ice hockey team earned a spot in the Hockey East semifinals for the third straight season.
Captain Taylor Leech scored a power play goal with 4:27 left in the second period to give the Black Bears a 2-1 win over Boston College at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on Friday evening.
UMaine, the fifth seed, is now 15-18-1 while No. 4 Boston College closed out a 19-14-1 campaign, which included three regular season wins over UMaine, two in overtime.
UMaine’s semifinal game will be Wednesday and the opponent will be determined on Saturday when the other quarterfinal games will be played as Providence travels to Vermont, Boston University goes to UConn and Merrimack visits Northeastern.
Defenseman Leech, a native of Bowdoinham and a graduate student, broke a 1-1 tie with a slap shot from the high slot that deflected past BC goalie Abigail Levy off a BC player.
Mira Seregely and Celine Tedenby assisted on the goal, which was Leech’s fifth of the season.
Graduate student Willow Corson staked the Eagles with a 1-0 lead in the first period before UMaine freshman Alyssa Wruble tied it with 2.1 seconds left in the period.
UMaine sophomore Jorden Mattison, making her first playoff start in place of the injured Loryn Porter, made 27 saves while Levy finished with 29.
BC’s Caroline Goffredo rattled a deflected shot off the crossbar in the third period.
Corson opened the scoring by neatly tucking the puck past Mattison from the edge of the crease after the puck came to her off the boards behind the net. It was her fourth of the season and Alexie Guay and Goffredo notched assists on the goal.
Wruble tied it when a BC defenseman coughed the puck up in the slot and she roofed it.
It was her fifth and it was unassisted.
UMaine upset Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, in the single-game quarterfinals a year ago and swept a best-of-three series at Boston University the previous season.