MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (Friday, February 14, 2025)-- Freshman Margueritte Donahue sunk her second career goal four minutes into what would become a 3-1 Salve Regina University women's ice hockey victory over the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies in NEHC play.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Final: Salve Regina 3, Southern Maine 3
Records: Salve Regina (15-9-0,13-4-0 NEHC), Southern Maine (11-11-2,8-7-2 NEHC)
History: Women's ice hockey has an all-time Valentines Day record of 3-1. Prior to today's Seahawk win the Huskies secured the last three consecutive victories. On February 3, 2018 Southern Maine won 4-1. Rebecca Hasting scored the game opener 4:17 into the first period but the Huskies answered with one goal to tie it after 20 minutes and three more successes in the final period.

NOTEWORTHY

• Salve Regina had two early power play opportunities and took advantage of the second five-on-four dynamic when the Huskies were called for tripping with 3:14 gone from the clock. Gina Richard sent a pass to her Seahawk teammates right in front of the net and Donahue was able to score on a rebound at the 4:16 mark. 
• Riley Esposito converted twice, giving her 11 goals this season. Esposito is now tied with Emily Wroblewski in total points. Both have 11 goals and six assists for 17 points.
• The Huskies made it onto the board one minute into the last period when Ellie Eigner found the back of the net on the power play. 
• Both teams totaled 11 penalties. USM went 1/6 with the advantage and Salve was 2/5.
• Goalie Taylor Hannafan picked up her eighth career win. She made 15 saves and faced the Huskies' eight shots on net, their highest of the evening, in period two.
• USM goalie Haley McKim now has a season record of 8-11-2. She made 35 saves against the Seahawks. In the first period the host fired off 16 shots, followed by 11 and eight in the respective second and third periods.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH LUN
"We're playing more consistently in our overall game. Our execution is better and we've got solid goal tending down the stretch. We've started to figure out how we need to play to be successful and we've stuck to it. We've really tried to grab on to how we need to play and we've been able to consistently do that more often. We're getting some timely scoring which is better and we've gotten solid goal tending all year which is helpful.

Tonight I thought it would be a tight playoff type game. For the past two or three weekends we've been in very tight, back-and-fourth kind of games where critical mistakes end up in the back of the net. We played a lot of special teams today so we didn't quite get the flow going but our penalty kill was solid. We were 2/5 on the power play and we're working better on the power play."

ON THE HORIZON
Tomorrow women's ice hockey will be back to host Southern Maine at 1:30 p.m. Prior to the start of the game the team will honor Emma Breen, Jessica McPherson, Elena Palmer and Emma Pereira as graduating seniors for their dedication to and leadership of the Salve women's ice hockey team.