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While most people will be munching Thanksgiving turkey today, the University of Maine women’s hockey team will be flying to Grand Forks, N.D., for a two-game set with North Dakota on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Second-year coach Guy Perron’s Bears are 6-3-3 while the Fighting Sioux are 0-8-2 under former Maine assistant Shantel (Gammie) Rivard. It is North Dakota’s fourth varsity season.
One of the keys to Maine’s start has been a power play operating at an impressive 25 percent success rate (21-for-84). Maine was a dismal 10.7 percent on the power play a year ago.
“We’ve worked on our power play a lot,” said senior right wing Cheryl White. “We feel comfortable playing with each other, and the biggest thing is we’re shooting, we’re getting screens, we’re getting to the net, and we’re getting the rebounds. Most of the goals have been on rebounds.”
White also said the coaching staff has changed the power play setups.
Perron said he used to run an overload with at least three players on one side of the ice.
“Now we’re more creative. We have four down low and Julie Poulin is the quarterback up top and that has really helped us,” said Perron. “We’ve been getting great play from Cheryl. And having Kelly Law down low has given us more grit in the corners. She also takes the puck to the net.”
Maine has received balanced scoring on the power play as six Bears have at least two PPGs.
Junior defenseman Law and sophomore defenseman Poulin lead the Bears with two goals and seven assists apiece on the power play. White has 3 & 3, freshman right wing Vanessa Vani has 3 & 2, Corriveau has 2 & 3, and sophomore LW Danielle Tangredi has 3 & 1.
Maine’s penalty-killing has also been impressive, killing off 86.8 percent of opposing power plays.
But in their six Hockey East games, they are 1-3-2 and eight of their 12 goals have come on the power play.
“We need to score more goals five-on-five,” said Corriveau. “That’s our biggest problem.”
Perron said, “We’re not really happy with where we’re at. The games we needed to win, we didn’t.”
White said, “We’re still a little inconsistent. We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”
White leads the Bears in scoring with nine goals and five assists. Vani has 6 & 5, Law has 3 & 8, junior center Brigitte Laflamme has 4 & 6, Poulin has 3 & 7, Tangredi has 4 & 5, and junior left wing Sonia Corriveau has registered 4 & 4.
The defense corps, featuring Law, Poulin, senior Morgan Janusc, Boston College transfer Kim Meagher of Hampden, and freshmen Jenna Cowan and Chantal Jaillet, has been solid, according to Perron, and that has enabled him to move Karine Senecal up to left wing.
Another positive has been the goaltending. Freshman Genevieve Turgeon is 3-3-2 with a 2.44 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage; freshman Lundy Day is 1-0-1, 1.70, and .900; and junior Rachel Gettings, who played all but 68 minutes last season, is 2-0, 0.75, and .941.
“We’ve had really strong goaltending,” said White. “We can count on any of them on any night. They’ve all stepped up. They’ve been amazing for us.”
UM volleyball signs pair
The University of Maine volleyball team received National Letters of Intent from two players to attend school next fall.
Amanda Armstrong, a 6-foot-1 senior middle hitter from Wakesha, Wis., earned all-conference and honorable mention all-state honors after leading her team to the playoffs.
Jennifer Domer is a 6-foot outside hitter from Manhattan Beach, Calif., who earned all-conference honors while leading her team to the California State Championship.
“Amanda is a power attacker in the middle,” Maine coach Lynn Atherley said in a UMaine press release. “Jenn is an explosive and dynamic hitter who plays for one of the top high school teams in the nation.”
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