Sault College cruises to win in national championship opener

Looking to defend their national championship from a year ago, the Sault College women's hockey team started about as well as they could have on Tuesday afternoon.

In their return to the American Collegiate Hockey Association women’s division II national championship tournament, the Cougars skated to a 7-0 win over Mercyhurst in the opening game of the tourney for both teams.

Sault College opened the scoring just under six minutes into the contest as Alyssa Byers skated down the left wing and beat Mercyhurst goaltender Victoria Campana glove side from the faceoff circle.

With just under four minutes to go in the opening frame, Sault College took a 2-0 lead as Materia Land beat Campana with a shot from the right circle off a rebound of an Emily Brunet shot from the left circle.

Sault College wasted little time extending the lead in the second period as Emma Lee picked up her first goal of the tournament 94 seconds into the frame. After the puck was turned over by Mercyhurst at the Sault College line, Land skated down the right wing and her initial shot was stopped by Campana. Lee proceeded to capitalize on the rebounds to make it a 3-0 game.

Lee picked up her second goal of the period as she skated into the slot and took a pass from Emily Moore below the goal line and beat Campana glove side at 13:46.

Jasmine Groleau made it a 5-0 game in the third period as she skated into the slot from the right corner and beat Campana low stick side 3:37 into the final period.

Groleau picked up her second goal of the period as she scored on a rebound in closed after Campana stopped her initially in close at 7:52.

Moore made it a 7-0 game midway through the final period. The Sault College veteran came out of the penalty box, skated into the Mercyhurst zone and took a pass from Lee and proceeded to beat Campana with a shot stick side.

Lee paced Sault College with two goals and an assist in the victory.

In addition to the two-goal day from Groleau, Land and Moore also two-point games with a goal and an assist each for Sault College.

Farrah Farstad stopped seven shots for the shutout for Sault College.

At the other end, Campana stopped 48 shots for Mercyhurst in the loss.

Sault College is back in action on Wednesday afternoon with a game against Nacy before the team wraps up its round robin schedule on Thursday against Northeastern.

Teams are separated info four pools for the tournament with the winners of each pool advancing to semi-final play on Friday. The national championship game is set for Saturday afternoon.