DURHAM, N.H. - Freshman goaltender Sedona Blair (Eden Prairie, Minn.) stopped all 15 shots and broke the program single-season saves record to backstop the University of New Hampshire women's hockey team to a 3-0 victory against the University of Vermont in Saturday night's Hockey East quarterfinal at the Whittemore Center at Key Auto Group Complex.
Blair, a Hockey East Third Team All-Star and All-Rookie Team selection, recorded her fifth shutout of the season and is the UNH single-season record holder with 889 saves.
Senior Chavonne Truter (Oxbridge, Ontario) and grad students Tamara Thiérus (Saint-Jérôme, Quebec) and Annie Berry (Milton, Mass.) scored one goal apiece. Rae Breton (Brighton, Ontario), Shea Verrier (Reading, Mass.) and Charli Kettyle (Perth, Ontario) were each credited with an assist.
Jessie McPherson had 28 saves and two goals against for UVM. Berry's tally was an empty netter at 17:13 of the third period.
UNH, the tourney No. 3 seed with a 14-11-2 league record, improves to 18-15-2 overall and advances to a March 6 semifinal. Vermont ends the season at 13-17-5.
UP NEXT
UNH will play Wednesday, March 6 at No. 2-seeded Northeastern University in the Hockey East semifinals.
FIRST PERIOD
- At 4:48, Blair came up big for the 'Cats with a glove-side save to deny Julia Mespléde.
- Between the two teams there were four successful penalty kills in the opening 20 minutes.
- UNH had 10 shots while UVM had two.
- Four of UNH's shots came during the two overlapping Vermont penalties.
SECOND PERIOD
- Brooke Hammer (Commerce Township, Mich.), from the left corner, found Kira Juodikis (LaSalle, Ontario )at the front of the net, where she took two shots on net that were blocked by McPherson at 5:52.
- Truter struck first when she screened McPherson and deflected Breton's shot from the right point at 7:22. Verrier, with the cross-ice pass to Breton, was credited with the secondary assist.
- With 10 minutes left in the period, Nicole Kelly (Brantford, Ontario) broke behind the Vermont defenders to take a shot from inside the left circle that resulted in a glove save by McPherson.
- Blair had a lunging save at 4:19 to keep UNH's lead at 1-0 going into the third period.
THIRD PERIOD
- Just under three minutes into the period, Thiérus created a UVM turnover behind the net to wrap the puck around at the right post and score to advance UNH's lead to 2-0 at 2:54.
- Blair made her record-breaking 887th save of the season - 13th of the game - with approximately nine minutes left in the game.
- UVM pulled McPherson in favor of an extra skater with 2:52 remaining.
- Eight seconds later, however, Berry, collected Kettyle's outlet pass, skated across the center line and scored an empty-net goal at 17:13 to make it a 3-0 game.
GAME NOTEBOOK
- UNH had the shot advantage of 31-15.
- Vermont had a 24-22 faceoff win edge.
- The Wildcats had 20 blocked shots while the Catamounts had 12.
- Both teams were 0-for-2 on the power play.
UNH NOTEBOOK
- Blair now has 889 saves, which is the highest on UNH's single-season leaderboard. She broke the record of 886 set by then-freshman Ava Boutilier in 2018.
- UNH will be making its 10th overall Hockey East semifinal appearance and first since 2020. The 'Cats have a 6-3 record in that round.
- Nine of UNH's 17 Hockey East tourney wins have been by shutout.
- Truter's goal was her ninth of the season.
- Thiérus scored her fifth goal of the season. It was her 75th career point.
- She extended her point streak to three games with a pair of goals and assists for four points in that span.
- Berry's empty netter was her eighth goal of the season. She had four goals and three assists for a total of seven points in her three-game point streak.
- Breton finished the game with an assist, four blocks and +3 rating.
- Kyla Bent (Halifax, Nova Scotia) led all skaters with five blocks.
- Kelly had a team-high nine faceoff wins.
- UNH has a 14-3-1 record when scoring three or more goals this season.
- The 'Cats are also 14-3-1 when leading through two periods of play.
- New Hampshire is 15-4-1 when taking a 1-0 lead.
SERIES NOTEBOOK
- UNH has a 38-20-8 lifetime record against Vermont.
- New Hampshire is 2-2-0 this season against the Catamounts.
