Like all the winter athletic teams at USM, the men’s and women’s hockey teams were back in action after a short winter break for several games in January.
The men’s team gathered back in Gorham for an exhibition game against the USA Under-18 Team — a team USM has played for the last three seasons. The Huskies struggled with the Under-18 team, which is comprised of the country’s best players who are 18 years and younger. Five different players scored goals for the Under-18 team and goaltender John Gibson stopped 29 USM shots en route to a 5-1 victory. Senior defenseman Paul Conter (Woodbridge, Ont.) scored USM’s lone goal when he fired a shot from the left wing that hit an Under-18 player and slipped past Gibson.
Three days later the Huskies traveled to Vermont to take on Middlebury where both teams skated to a 3-3 overtime tie. Sophomore David Nies (Brookline, Mass. ) scored two goals in the game and classmate Matt McDonald (Byfield, Mass.) recorded the other goal. From there, USM traveled back to Gorham to play two games in two days on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 against Salem State and New England College and then two more games on Jan. 14 and Jan. 16 against NESCAC rivals Bowdoin College and Colby College. The Huskies lost all four games, dropping their conference record to 2-7-0 and their overall record to 4-8-2.
Nies led the Huskies over the break as he scored 3 goals and added an assist. Senior co-captains Jon Rutt (Scarborough) and Zach Joy (Dover, N.H.) each recorded two assists.
The USM women’s team was back in Gorham on Jan. 4 to take on Sacred Heart for a Friday/Saturday two-game series. In the first game, the two teams skated to a scoreless first period, but the Huskies got down early in the second period as Sacred Heart junior Nichole Palazzo scored on USM freshman goaltender Jordan Lee (Colorado Springs, CO). USM would get one back though as junior forward Janna Sacco (Niagra Falls, Ont.) scored nine minutes later off assists from junior Katie Paradis (Rochester, N.H.) and sophomore Katie Davis (Woburn, Mass.).
USM struck again 30 seconds later as the team’s leading goal scorer, sophomore Kailey Bubier scored off assists from juniors Kylie Blasen (Okemos, MI) and Joanna Gaube (Woodstock, Conn.) to make the score 2-1. Sacred Heart sophomore Megan Murphy scored a minute later to tie the score at two going into the second intermission.
Both teams traded goals within the first five minutes of the third period, with Jana Sacco (Niagara Falls, Ont.) scoring her second goal of the game at the five minute mark. Murphy answered back five minutes later with her second goal of the game to put her team up by one, but Bubier struck right back with less than a minute to play to send the game into overtime. USM earned the victory when Bubier took a pass from Blasen and fired a shot at net that missed, and Gaube picked up the rebound and slipped it past SHU goalie Raelene Sydor.
The Huskies were downed by SHU the next afternoon 2-1 and lost three straight games after that to Bowdoin, Saint Anselm and UMass Boston.
The USM women’s team will play seven of their last ten games on the road, and will face some tough competition as two of those teams — Norwich (3) and Manhattanville (10) — are in the USCHO.com DIII National Women’s Poll. The men’s team will play five of their last nine games on the road, which will all be important games, specifically against conference foes Babson, Castleton State, and Skidmore.