UMass Boston women’s hockey moved to 5-2 in the 2024 season following their 3-2 victory over Vermont State University Castleton, Friday, Nov. 22. It’s the Beacons’ fifth straight win, and more importantly, they remain undefeated at 5-0 in the Little East Conference.
Emily Hansen, who had a chance to drive the puck deep as the Beacons looked to be making a half shift change, drove to the net herself dancing around two Spartan defenders and beat Gianna McCusker blocker side to put the Beacons up one with 46.2 seconds left on the clock.
The Spartans, who called their timeout after, couldn’t land a shot to try and tie after outshooting the Beacons 10-7 in the third. It was VTSU’s period, suffocating the Beacons with their forecheck who couldn’t clear with any sort of ease.
Sloppy behind the net play led to turnover after turnover creating chances for the Spartans, but Veronika Hadamovsky stood tall for the Beacons. The freshman goaltender had a career-best 31 saves including a ridiculous stop from the splits to prevent the Spartans from taking the lead late in the third. She’s now 2-1 with a 1.35 goals against average.
Second year head coach Moe Bradley seemed thrilled with her team following their clutch win, coming off the ice sharing a celebration with fans behind the glass. “That’s UMass Boston hockey,” said Bradley. She expressed how good she’s feeling about her team moving forward, highlighting her rookie goaltenders play, “she’s been great for us.”
The Beacons were slated for back to back games against VTSU, the second scheduled the next day on Saturday Nov. 23. Bradley opted for a goaltender change on the quick turnaround, turning to junior Leah Bosch.
Bosch made ten saves in the first period, while the Beacons only recorded three shots. The pace picked up for UMass Boston in the second period, getting more pucks to the net. They finally converted at the tail end of the second, with a quick strike on the powerply by Cassidy Morrison to put the Beacons up 1-0.
It didn’t take long after the third period started to extend that lead, Katie Wilbert took it herself on a two on one and ripped one over the blocker of Victoria Bakopanos for a 2-0 lead.
VTSU eventually buried a rebound that bounced off Bosch’s pad. Caris Erickson tucked it in, who struggled in the first two periods, committing two penalties.
With seven minutes remaining, the Spartans shot themselves in the foot; Alex Johnson drilled Liz Kramp who made a nice cut to the middle, drawing a kneeing call, sending Johnson to the box for a five minute major. The Beacons would be on the powerplay for five minutes of the 6:52 remaining.
VTSU killed it off, and were able to get an offensive zone faceoff with Bakopanos pulled and under a minute remaining. Showing little poise, they couldn’t control play and the Beacons earned multiple efforts at the empty net, dominating down a man.
A sweep of the Spartans puts the Beacons to 6-2 on the year, and extends their streak to six. Still undefeated in the Little East, UMass Boston tops the rankings.
