Women’s Hockey Shutouts Johnson & Wales in NEHC Quarterfinals, 2-0

PAWTUCKET, R.I. – A pair of goals over a 55-second span and stand-up netminding by Julia McLellan helped the sixth-seeded Suffolk women's hockey team upset third-seed Johnson & Wales, 2-0, Saturday night at Lynch Arena.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 2 | Johnson & Wales 0 
RECORDS: Suffolk (9-14-3) | Johnson & Wales (11-11-4)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
It was an exciting first frame for the blue-and-gold as both of Suffolk's goals came within one minute of each other. Julia Volpe started the scoring frenzy at the 10:29 minute mark thanks to a feed from Maddy Burton. Less than a minute later, Haley Poloskey padded the Rams cushion to a pair of pucks after the sophomore scored on Madison Duff's and Madison Ricardo's assists.  

That two-goal gap remained as the teams skated into both intermissions. 

Johnson & Wales had two man-up opportunities in the third. The Rams defensed backed up McLellan each time, actually controlling the puck for the majority of the first, which came 5:17 into the final period, to keep the Wildcats off the board.  

In a last-ditch effort, JWU pulled Jasmien Mucci from the net for the final 1:42. Once again McLellan stood up to the challenge to preserve not only the victory, but the cleansheet. 

NETMINDER NOTES

• McLellan turned aside 20 shots in her first shutout. 
• Mucci registered 37 stops in the season-ending setback.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Poloskey and Volpe each scored one goal for Suffolk. 
• Burton, Duff and Ricardo each tallied one assist. 
• The Rams commanded shots, 39-20, while the Wildcats edged the blue-and-gold in the face-off battle, 34-33. 

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk competed in the NEHC Quarterfinals for the second time in as many years and second time in program history. 
• The Rams went to the NEHC playoffs as the sixth seed for the first time. 
• Suffolk competed on the road in the NEHC tournament for the first time. 
• The Rams met Johnson & Wales in the NEHC tourney for the first time. 
• Suffolk captured its first post-season win in program history. 
• The Rams produced their first post-season shutout. 
• Suffolk defeated Johnson & Wales for the second straight game, to move to 4-1-0 all-time against the Wildcats. 
• Suffolk improved to 2-1-0 against JWU in Rhode Island. 
• The Rams have now shutout the Wildcats three times, including back-to-back battles, which is a first time in program history that Suffolk has strung together a pair of cleansheets in an all-time series. 
• The shutout marks Suffolk's third of the season. 
• McLellan secured her first collegiate program history. 
• Volpe scored her first goal of the season.  

POST-GAME PIC

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Suffolk awaits the conclusion of the NEHC Quarterfinals and reseeding to find out its semifinal foe.