Canton, MA - The Curry Women's Hockey team defeated the Keene State Owls on Friday by a final score of 7-2. The Colonels are now 11-12-1 on the season, while the Owls are 13-12-0. With the win, the Colonels have now won six straight games, the longest winning streak in program history.
Prior to the game the Colonels honored their inaugural class of seniors, celebrating senior day. A total of 13 players and two managers were honored.
It was a quiet first period, as neither team had many good chances. But the Owls would grab a goal in the final 20 seconds to lead 1-0 at the first intermission. But that would not last, as Danielle Reid scored seven minutes into the second period to tie things up.
After an Owls power play goal put them back up, the Colonels responded almost immediately. Bella Mardesich scored two goals in less than two minutes to put Curry up 3-2 at the second intermission. The third period was all Colonels, as they outshot the Owls 10-0. Katie Corteau scored 90 seconds into the third, followed by Mardesich, and then Hannah Berkowitz. All three goals were assisted by Grayson Goolgasian. With the three assists, Goolgasian tied the program record for assists in a game. She has now done that twice in the past three games. She now leads the CNE with 16 assists on the season. With her three goals, Mardesich became just the second player in program history to record a hat trick, just two games after Reid became the first. Reid, not to be outshined by the freshman Mardesich, wrapped up the scoring with another goal, her conference leading 16th of the season.
Reid, one of the seniors honored before the game, set a new program record for consecutive games scoring a goal. This marked her sixth straight game with a goal, breaking the previous record of five, which she had previously set. During that stretch she has scored 10 goals.
Starting in goal for the Colonels was senior Vivi Helquist. In a career that was limited due to injuries, Helquist was making her first appearance in two years. That last appearance was a seven second cameo at the end of a game, so it was her first real playing time in almost three years to the day, as she last played when she started on February 19, 2022. That appearance came in the program's inaugural season, and Helquist made 43 saves in a loss that day. Helquist didn't have to do as much work in this one, stopping eight of the 10 shots she faced on the night, good enough for her first career win.
The Colonels dominated every aspect of the game, outshooting the Owls 38-10, and winning 35 of the 53 faceoffs. That was highlighted by Hannah Berkowitz, who won 14 of her 15 faceoffs. She leads the CNE with a faceoff winning percentage of .671. Second in the conference is her own teammate Danielle Reid at .600.
The Colonels currently sit in second place in the CNE. The #2 seed, and the first round bye in the CNE playoffs will come down to the final game, as the Colonels are two points ahead of UNE. Curry will travel to first place Endicott, while UNE wil travel to last place Nichols. Curry owns the tiebreaker over UNE, virtue of a 2-1 record against the Nor'easters this season. In order to clinch the #2 seed, the Colonels will need either a win, or an overtime/shootout loss against Endicott OR a UNE loss to Nichols.
Up Next - The Colonels will play their final game of the regular season on Saturday when they travel to Endicott for a 3pm game.
