The University of Maine women’s ice hockey team will be a huge underdog going into Saturday afternoon’s Hockey East quarterfinal game against the nation’s sixth-ranked team, the University of Connecticut Huskies, at the Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs, Connecticut.
Puck drop is 3 p.m.
UConn’s top five scorers are two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore while UMaine’s are four freshmen and a sophomore.
UConn’s goalie, Tia Chan, is a graduate student while UMaine’s Kiia Lahtinen is a sophomore.
UConn has an eight-game unbeaten streak vs. UMaine (7-0-1).
But when the two teams met in Orono on Jan. 9-10, each of the two games was decided by one goal with UConn triumphing 2-1 and 4-3.
Chan made 66 saves in the two games and Lahtinen made 61.
So the Black Bears know they can compete with the Huskies.
“After losing two close games, the message to our players is let’s do everything we can to turn the script,” said UMaine fourth-year head coach Molly Engstrom. “It’s about the small details.”
The seventh-seeded Black Bears supplied Engstrom with her first playoff win on Wednesday night, 4-0, over 10th seed Merrimack.
Engstrom said her Black Bears are going to have to reduce their mistakes and limit the amount of time and space UConn’s top scorers have with the puck.
That list includes UConn senior Kyla Josifovic (11 goals, 23 assists), sophomore Claire Murdoch (11 & 18), junior Julia Pellerin (11 & 15), senior Megan Woodworth (14 & 9) and junior Ashley Allard (9 & 13).
Pellerin, a Boston College transfer, is the daughter of former UMaine Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Pellerin.
UMaine’s top point-getters are freshmen Isabelle Michaud (10 & 8), Mackenzie Podewell (6 & 9), Lulu Rucinski (4 & 10) and Paige Fong (1 & 12) along with sophomore Stephanie Jacob (10 & 5).
Chan’s 1.62 is seventh best in the country among 45 Division I programs and her .947 save percentage is third best. She has a 23-7-2 record.
Lahtinen has a 12-15-4 record, a 2.28 GAA and a .925 save percentage.