UM garners victory, tie in ECAC Droog sparks Bears in pivotal games

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ORONO – It had already been a breakthrough weekend for the University of Maine women’s hockey team but the encore rested on the shoulders of freshman left winger Karen Droog.

The Bears, who had notched a 5-4 win over Northeastern on Saturday night that gave them their first win over one of the established ECAC powers (Northeastern, Brown, Providence, Dartmouth, Harvard and New Hampshire) after 30 losses, found themselves trailing Providence 3-2 Sunday when they were awarded a penalty shot with 11 seconds left.

Droog capitalized to supply the Bears with a 3-3 tie.

Friar senior defenseman Valerie Bono was called for delay of game when she was ruled to have purposely pushed her net off its moorings. In the final two minutes of regulation or in overtime, this infraction along with an illegal substitution warrant a penalty shot.

Droog is Maine’s leading scorer but she had been thwarted on two breakaways earlier in the game by Friar junior goalie Brigid Keady.

“I wanted to take the shot but I was really nervous. I just wanted to score,” said Droog. “I had a plan. Our goalie [Dawn Froats] told me between the first and second periods to go five-hole on her.

“She got a good piece of it but it trickled through,” added Droog, who went to her backhand to score her 17th goal of the season.

The situation wasn’t unfamiliar to Droog.

“I took a penalty shot in overtime once,” said Droog, who had also converted that opportunity several years ago.

Keady said she couldn’t remember what happened on the penalty shot. She was focusing on playing the shot.

Maine is now 10-9-1 overall, 5-8-1 in ECAC play. Providence is 12-7-3 and 7-6-3 in league play.

The Bears had built a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Meagan Aarts and Esther Granville.

But the Friars, who had just 14 skaters including Keady, rallied to take the lead on Jenn Butsch’s late first-period goal and third-period scores by Kim Mathias and Darlene Stephenson.

And the Friars parlayed their superior speed and the talent of senior center Jessica Tabb, junior left wing Mathias and Bono to keep the Bears pinned in the defensive zone as they sought an insurance goal.

But Bear goalie Dawn Froats was outstanding, rejecting 29 shots including 10 over the last 25 minutes (including overtime).

“When you have a hot goalie, good things happen,” said Maine sophomore left winger Jarin Sjogren.

Keady was equally sharp although she was forced to make only 18 saves including two gems off Droog breakaways.

“Maine is a much improved team,” said Providence coach Bob Deraney. “I thought our team played courageously and I was very pleased with Brigid [Keady].”

Aarts opened the scoring 6:37 into the game when she followed up her own rolling wrist shot, pulled the puck away from Keady, who had dove out to cover it, and slid it into the open net.

Granville made it 2-0 when she swept home a Jamie Hill rebound after Hill had been set up in front by Cindy Biron, who was behind the net.

Butsch scored with a nifty move on a breakaway as she tucked a backhander behind Froats after being sent in by Bono.

Maine was fortunate to lead 2-1 after one because the Bears had surrendered four two-on-ones and two three-on-twos along with Butsch’s breakaway.

Maine played much better team defense in the second period, making sure the last forechecker stayed high in the offensive zone to prevent three-on-twos and two-on-ones.

Mathias tied it 13 seconds into the third period by pouncing on a loose puck, going wide around a Bear defenseman and tapping a point-blank wrister between Froats’ pads.

Stephenson scored 4:54 later off a three-on-two as she was set up nicely in the middle of the slot by Tabb and wristed a 16-footer past Froats.

On Saturday night, the Bears overcame a 3-1 deficit by receiving unanswered second-period goals from Aarts, Kelly Nelson, Raffi Wolf and Andrea Keller.

Droog had opened the scoring but NU forged a 3-1 lead on goals by Kathleen Savino, Lisa Giovanelli and Kim Greene with the latter two being power-play scores.

Greene scored again with 11:13 left for NU, which fell to 11-7 and 8-4.

Froats stopped 22 of 24 shots after replacing Amanda Cronin 10:54 into the game. Erika Silva made 18 saves for NU.

Wolf, Keller and Droog also picked up assists as did Greene.