Sault College rides special teams to second win at women's hockey nationals

Special teams certainly were just that for the Sault College women’s hockey team on Wednesday afternoon at the American Collegiate Hockey Association DII national championship in St. Louis.

Sault College scored twice on the power play and added a shorthanded goal in a 4-0 win over Navy Wednesday to move to 2-0 at the16-team event.

Sault College opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the contest as Materia Land found herself in the slot and took a pass from Emma Lee in the left faceoff circle and beat Navy goaltender Diana Pivirotto on the power play glove side.

Sault College’s special teams added to the lead just over four minutes later as Emily Moore grabbed the puck in the Sault zone, broke down the left wing, and beat Pivirotto 5-hole from the left circle shorthanded to make it a 2-0 game.

Alyssa Byers made it a 3-0 game with just over four minutes to go in the opening period as she beat Pivirotto with a shot from the point glove side on the power play.

Lee added to the Sault College lead 1:53 into the third period as she took a pass from Bergen Lucas, skated into the left circle and beat Pivirotto high short side with the teams playing 4-on-4.

Lee had a goal and an assist in the victory while Cassidy Dobson stopped all 13 shots she faced to pick up the shutout.

Pivirotto stopped 35 shots for Navy.

Pending the result of a game between Mercyhurst and Northeastern on Wednesday evening, Sault College is in the drivers’ seat to finish in first in the pool.

The Cougars sit in top spot in their pool following Wednesday’s victory with four points after picking up a win over Mercyhurst to open the tournament on Tuesday afternoon.

Northeastern entered action Wednesday after picking up an opening-day tie with Navy.

Sault College wraps up round robin play on Thursday against Northeastern, the second-seeded team in their pool. The game is a rematch of the 2023 national championship game, which Sault College won by a 6-1 score.

A Sault College victory would guarantee the Cougars a semi-final spot on Friday.