The Curry Women's Hockey team will take the ice on Saturday night for a playoff game in Canton Ice House for the first time in program history. This is a big step for the program, as their previous six playoff games all took place on the road. The Colonels will enter the semi-finals as the two seed with an 11-13-1 overall record, and 9-9-0 record in CNE play. The Nor'easters are 13-12-1 and 9-8-1. They earned their spot in the semi-final as the #3 seed, beating JWU 3-0 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The Colonels are the #2 seed, and earned a bye in the first round.
In their inaugural year, 2021-2022 they made it to the CCC semifinals after beating the #2 seed in the quarterfinals. The following season the Colonels took on the very same UNE they will host on Saturday, falling to the Nor'easters 3-0 two years ago. Last year was the year the Colonels made a run, defeating nationally ranked Endicott on the road 1-0 to advance to the CCC championship.
The magic number for the Colonels all season has been three goals. When they score three or more goals in a game, they are 8-1. But when they score less than three goals, they are 3-12-1.
Once the calendar flipped to February, it was a different Curry team on the ice. After losing 10 of 11 games, the Colonels won six straight games starting in February, only losing once in the month, to a nationally ranked Endicott team in the last game of the regular season.
There have been two things that have happened that coincided with that stretch. The first was the play of goalie Sarah Kerr. During the Colonels six game winning streak the junior started five games, and only allowed three goals on 134 shots, good for a .977 save percentage.
The second thing to happen was the play of Danielle Reid. During the rough 11 game stretch for the team, Reid only had one goal. Over the last seven games of the season she has scored 12 goals, including four in a win over Nichols. That was the first hat trick in program history. If Reid scores a goal, the Colonels are pretty happy, as they are 8-3 on the season when she scores a goal. In 103 career games, she has a program record 46 goals. Her 18 goals on the season are also a program record, and she currently sits atop the CNE in goals, and is tied for 10th in the country.
The Nor'easters are a balanced offense, with five different players scoring at least four goals on the season, led by Adria Tebo with seven. Their second leading scorer Hannah Humes is their assist and point leader with 11 and 17.
The goaltender the Colonels are likely to see in net is Kirsten DiCicco, as she has started 15 games on the season, including a shutout performance in the quarterfinals. She was the starting goalie in both of the Colonel's wins on the season over UNE.
All time the Colonels are 4-8-1 against the Nor'easters, and won the season series this year 2-1. In all three games the home team won by a single goal, potentially a good sign for the Colonels on Saturday.
The Colonels and Nor'easters will faceoff starting at 7pm on Saturday in the Canton Ice House. For those unable to be in attendance, the game can be watched HERE, and stats can be followed HERE
