ORONO – The University of Maine women’s hockey team’s received some welcome relief from its goal-scoring drought on Monday night and it was two players who are expected to score who led the way.

Junior right wing and second team All-ECAC selection Karen Droog collected a hat trick and assisted on another and her linemate, senior center Nicole Munro, contributed a goal and two assists as the Bears pulled away from the young and hard-working Colgate University Raiders 5-0 at Alfond Arena.

Maine snapped a five-game winless skein (0-3-2) in which it had scored only seven goals and improved to 4-7-2. The five goals were the most scored by the Bears this season. They entered the game with a 1.5 goals per game average.

The two teams play again tonight at 7.

Colgate fell to 9-8 after having its four-game winning streak snapped.

Lara Smart made 21 saves en route to her fourth career shutout.

“Scoring five goals tonight is better than doing 50 shooting drills,” said Munro. “It is our line’s job to score goals. If we don’t, we’re letting the team down.”

“It’s nice to get Lara a win,” added Droog noting that their junior goalie has been stellar all season but hasn’t received goal support from her mates.

“Yeah, they owed me,” grinned Smart.

Droog, who entered the game with 51 goals in 72 career games but just four in 12 games this season, scored a power-play goal in the first period and assisted on Munro’s second-period goal that gave the Bears a 2-0 lead entering the final 20 minutes.

Droog scored her second and third goals 1:40 apart early in the third period to ice the game and German Olympian Raffi Wolf, who played in the Olympics last season, notched her first of the season to cap the scoring.

Colgate, with 16 freshmen and sophomores on its roster and in just its second year in Division I, dominated the play in the early going with its speed and tenacity and held a 7-2 shots on goal margin.

But the Bears got better as the game went along and a series of three successive penalties on the Raiders late in the first period proved costly when Droog scored with 1:15 remaining in the period.

She got the puck from Munro along the right wing boards and took a snap shot from the top of the circle that was kicked out by Colgate goalie Rebecca Lahar.

“I followed my shot and put the rebound down low like coach [Rick Filighera] is always telling us to,” said Droog.

Her goal came three minutes after Smart made one of her best saves of the game, a glove stop off Setchell, who was set up between the circles by Allison Paiano.

“If we could have scored one or two early, it would have been a different game. We didn’t finish our chances,” said Setchell. “Their goalie was good although we didn’t challenge her much.”

Munro made it 2-0 in the second period after Vicky Johnstone took a snap shot from the left point that deflected in on Lahar. Th rebound squirted to the far post where Munro swept it into a half-empty net.

“If I didn’t put that one in, I would have had nightmares,” said Munro.

Droog put the game away with similar goals from the middle of the slot.

Munro tracked down her own rebound behind the net and fed Droog for the first one and Naomi Smethurst passed it to her for the goal that completed her hat trick.

“I put them both upstairs,” said Droog.

“The first one went over my stick and the second one went over my glove,” said Lahar, who finished with 25 saves.

“She’s good. She’s a strong kid,” said Setchell of Droog.

Wolf walked in from the point to add her insurance goal.

Smart was pleased with the shutout although she pointed out that “I didn’t face many good scoring chances.”

BLACK BEARS 5, RAIDERS 0

Colgate (9-8-0) 0 0 0 ? 0

Maine (4-7-2) 1 1 3 ? 5

First period ? 1. Maine, Droog 5 (Munro), 18:45 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Maddin, cross checking, 9:26; Col, Setchell, hitting from behind, 13:12; Col, Rhodes, interference, 18:24; Col, Mandel, cross checking, 19:53.

Second period ? 2. Maine, Munro 3 (Johnstone, Droog), 13:21. Penalties: Maine, Maddin, obstruction-holding, 1:28; Maine, Smethurst, checking, 8:07; Maine, Wolf, interference, 10:19.

Third period ? 3. Maine, Droog 5 (Munro) 6:30; 4. Droog 7 (Smethurst) 8:10; 5. Wolf 1 (Maddin) 15:15. Penalties: Colgate, Rhodes, 2:25

Shots on goal: Colgate 8-7-6?31; Maine 9-8-13?30

Goaltenders: Colgate, Lahar (30 shots-25 saves); Maine, Smart (21-21)

Power-play opportunities: Colgate 0 of 4; Maine 1 of 4

High-percentage scoring chances: Colgate 4-6-6?16; Maine 7-5-15?27

Attendance: 125