Women’s Ice Hockey Blanks Framingham St., 4-0

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – It was a team effort Saturday afternoon at Loring Arena, as the Rivier women's ice hockey team took down Framingham St. 4-0 in a Massachusetts State Athletic Collegiate Conference (MASCAC) matchup for their third shutout of the season. 

The Raiders improved to 7-7-0 (4-1-0 MASCAC) while the Rams fell to 0-12-0 (0-6-0 MASCAC).

Both teams traded opportunities to kick things off. Just over six minutes into the opening frame, Rivier was awarded a powerplay opportunity and they did not let it go to waste. First-year forward Keegan McGaheran put one on net from the left face-off circle. Her shot rebounded to senior forward Breezy Parent who put a shot on target herself but was denied. Sophomore forward Rebecca McKelvey applied the finishing blow off of Parent's saved shot and put the game's first tally on the board. The Raiders continued to shine offensively for the remainder of the first period, but the score remained 1-0 at the end of one.

Rivier added 11 more shots to its total throughout the first 14 minutes of action in the second period. The Raiders 12th shot resulted in going ahead 2-0. With Framingham St. unsuccessful in getting the puck deep, junior defender Olivia Schultz took control of the puck and fed it up to senior forward Briana Paxson who took a chance from the blue line, which turned into a glove save played out right in front of junior forward Brianna Rumptz to find twine.

Rivier added two goals to their total just 2:44 seconds into the third period. The third line, composed of sophomore forward Molly Hurley, Paxson, and Rumptz, worked their magic, this time with Paxson striking gold for her second point of the afternoon and extending the Raiders' lead to 3-0. Just 52 seconds later, Rivier capitalized on the powerplay for the second time. Shultz tucked home the game's final goal off of feeds from McGaheran and Parent and eventually closed out the contest, 4-0.

Sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Bruno recorded her first career shutout and 19 stops in the win.

McGaheran, Parent, Paxson, Rumptz, and Shultz each earned two points and as a team, Rivier recorded 64 shots with 60 of them being on target.

The Raiders look to build on their current five-game win streak as they look ahead to next Friday, Jan. 24 as they take on intrastate rival and MASCAC foe Plymouth St. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Hanaway Rink.