ROCHESTER, NY – Sophomore Abbey Luth scored twice and the Nazareth College women's hockey team built a 4-2 lead in the second period but three goals by Stevenson University in the final period allowed the Mustangs to skate to a 5-5 tie with the Golden Flyers Saturday afternoon at the Bill Gray's Iceplex.
Stevenson (7-7-3 overall, 5-4-1 UCHC) opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period despite Nazareth (13-2-3, 7-1-2 UCHC) holding a commanding 17-6 edge in shots over the first 20 minutes.
The Golden Flyers finally found the back of the net in the second period as sophomore Nikolle VanStralen scoring the first goal for Nazareth just 1:16 into the second stanza. Classmates Cristina Darby and Maria DiCresce added assists on the play as the Golden Flyers tied the score at 1-1.
Just 35 seconds later, Nazareth took a lead as freshman Madison Schroeder tipped in a shot from the point by sophomore Jessica Kollberg with a second assist going to freshman Makenna Wiljanen as the Golden Flyers took a 2-1 edge.
Less than two minutes later, Stevenson drew even again with an unassisted goal at the 3:33 mark of the period.
Three minutes later, Luth scored the first of two goals to regain the lead for Nazareth as she collected a rebound from a shot from sophomore Hailey Reddders for a 3-2 lead. Wiljanen scored another Nazareth goal less than three minutes later to push the lead to 4-2. Freshman Celena Rea and Schroeder added assists on the play.
Neither team scored the rest of the second period but Stevenson battled back for two goals in the first six minutes of the third period to tie the score again at 4-4.
Just a few minutes later, with each team serving a penalty, Luth scored her second goal of the game with an assist from sophomore Madison Nichols as Nazareth took a 5-4 lead with 10:52 left to play in the final period.
Stevenson took advantage of a late penalty and added the extra skater after pulling the goalie and scored to tie the game at 5-5 with less than a minute to play in regulation.
Each team had good scoring chances in overtime with the Mustangs firing seven shots on goal in the five minute overtime period but sophomore Adrianna Brehm stopped each shot to preserve the tie for Nazareth.
The Golden Flyers return to action at 1 p.m. Sunday against Alvernia in another UCHC home game.
