Sault College to face familiar foe in national championship semi

For the third consecutive appearance, they needed a win in the final game of round robin play to advance.

For the Sault College women’s hockey team, their toughest opponent has generally come in their final round robin game at the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II national championship and Thursday was no different.

It wasn’t easy, but Sault College earned a spot in the tournament’s final four thanks to a 5-2 victory over Northeastern University in St. Louis on Thursday in what was a rematch of last year’s national championship game.

Backed by a solid goaltending performance from Caroline Davis, Northeastern kept things close before Sault College added a pair of goals in the third period to seal the victory.

Sault College opened the scoring on a goal by Emma Lee, her fourth of the tournament, at 12:32 of the opening period. Lee cut around three opposing players near the Northeastern blueline before beating Davis with a shot high glove on the break.

Just under two minutes later, Sault College made it a 2-0 game as Jasmine Groleau skated in on a 2-on-1 with Marie-Pier Lecours and proceeded to beat Davis with a backhand high stick side.

Northeastern made it a one-goal game late in the period thanks to a power play goal. A point shot from Stella Knight found its way past Sault College goaltender Farrah Farstad after appearing to hit a body in traffic in the slot with 1:40 to go in the period.

The game hit a weather delay with 36 seconds to go in the opening period. With severe weather in the St. Louis area, a tornado warning stopped play in the final minute of the period, delaying the game for roughly an hour before play resumed for the final seconds of the first period.

Sault College made it a two-goal game again late in the second period as Lee picked up her second goal of the day. With just under four minutes to go in the period, Lee cut out from the right side boards and beat Davis with a shot from the top of the circle stick side on the power play.

Just 90 seconds into the third period, Halle MacLachlan made it a 4-1 game as she deflected a point shot by Amelia Williams past Davis to extend the Sault College lead.

Northeastern didn’t back down though as Emily Pollis made it a 4-2 game just under five minutes into the third as she skated down the right wing and beat Farstad with a shot from the top of the right circle that beat the Sault College netminder stick side.

Sault College had a chance to extend the lead again midway through the period, but Lee was turned aside on a penalty shot by Davis.

Sault College eventually capped off the win thanks to an empty net goal from Groleau in the final minute of play.

Groleau finished the day with two goals and an assist to pace Sault College offensively in addition to the two-goal game from Lee.

Lecours and Materia Land assisted on two goals each for Sault College.

Farstad stopped 13 shots for Sault College.

Knight and Pollis had a goal and an assist each for Northeastern while Davis stopped 34 shots in the loss.

Sault College finished the round robin with a perfect 3-0 record after opening the tournament with wins over Mercyhurst on day one and Navy yesterday.

The local entry in the 16-team tournament will now face Dakota College at Bottineau in semi-final play for the second consecutive year. Sault College won last year’s meeting by a 3-0 score to advance to the national championship game.

The other semi-final game will see Assiniboine take on Providence College in the early game.

In addition to Sault College and Dakota College, Assiniboine also advanced to the semi-final in last year’s tournament.

The winner of Friday’s semi-final games will meet in the national championship on Saturday afternoon.