Box | Updated stats
GENEVA, NY – Nikolle Van Stralen scored a short-handed goal with 5:18 left in the third period to lift the Nazareth College women's hockey team to a 3-1 victory over William Smith in the regular season finale at the Cooler. The win secured second place in the final United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) standings for the Golden Flyers and the team will have a bye in the first round of the UCHC playoffs.
Nazareth (19-4-2 overall, 13-4-1 UCHC) opened the scoring in the first period as Emily Kromer netted a goal with an assist from Hailey Redders just four minutes into the game.
The score remained 1-0 until the third period thanks in large part to the play of the Nazareth defense and goalie Adrianna Brehm who made several big saves especially in the second period. One key save came five minutes into the second period when the freshman goalie made a diving save to the far side of the goal to keep the Golden Flyers ahead.
In the third period, William Smith (16-7-2, 12-4-2) tied the game as Julia Mings blocked a pass in her defensive zone and skated out into the neutral zone for a breakaway on Brehm. Mings faked a shot and beat Brehm with a backhand shot.
After penalties called against each team, Nazareth ended up on a short man down situation. Kyla Thompson gained control of the puck and carried it outside the defensive zone before dumping the puck off the boards and into the William Smith zone to get a line change. After she skated to the bench, Van Stralen picked up the loose puck inside the Herons zone and skated in for a clear shot on goal and beat the William Smith goalie to the glove side for the go-ahead goal.
The Herons applied pressure late and had a faceoff to the left of Brehm with 20.8 second left. Nazareth used its time out and after the stoppage, Van Stralen won the faceoff for Nazareth and the puck was cleared around the boards to Keeley Rose near the blue line who spun around and sent the puck the length of the ice and into the goal for the empty net goal to seal the win.
Brehm finished with 32 saves in the Nazareth goal and improved her record to 16-3-2 on the year.
The Golden Flyers will face the highest remaining seed after the quarterfinal round of play. Neumann will face William Smith in Geneva and Utica will play at Manhattanville Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. Elmira will host the lowest remaining seed in the other semifinal matchup. Both semifinal games are tentatively scheduled for Mar. 2.
