BOSTON, Mass.—Despite the first collegiate goal for Anna Kehoe (Hingham, Mass.), UMass Boston women's hockey fell 5-1 to #8 Norwich University on Friday in their New England Hockey Conference and home opener. 

THE BASICS

#8 Norwich University 5, UMass Boston 1

(UMass Boston 1-1-1, NEHC 0-1-0)
(Norwich University 1-1-0, NEHC 1-0-0)

HOW IT HAPPENED

In a rematch of last year's NEHC Semifinals, the visiting Cadets scored two goals in each of the first two periods and added the only goal of the third period to earn a 5-1 win. 

In net, Beacons goalie Caty Flagg (Methuen, Mass.) made a season-high 36 saves on 41 shots to fall to 1-1-1. The senior netminder made at least 10 saves in all three periods, including 14 in the first stanza.  

Senior Bri Colucci (Lancaster, N.Y.) recorded an assist on Kehoe's goal, for her team-leading second point of the season. 

Five different Cadets found the back of the net in the victory, including three players scoring their first collegiate goal. 

Sophomore goalie Kate Winstanley made 20 saves on 21 shots to earn a win in her first start of the season. 

Norwich opened the first period strong and broke the scoreless deadlock just over five minutes into the contest. Bailey Park found a wide-open Kirsten Watts at the top of the slot and her hard shot beat Flagg just under the bar for a 1-0 advantage. 

The Beacons earned a power-play midway through the period to swing the momentum, but Norwich added a second goal off a bad turnover. On an attempted clearance, a Beacon sent the puck straight to the stick of Molly Flanagan, and the freshman defenseman fired home a low wrist shot at 14:17. 

Norwich extended their advantage to 3-0 at 7:32 of the third. After the Cadets won a face-off in the offensive zone, Mikah Baptiste had two shots in tight denied by Flagg, before her third effort slipped past the Beacons goalie. 

UMass Boston came out firing from there and cut the deficit to two with a 5-on-3, power-play goal. Colucci sent a soft shot from the point that Kehoe redirected through Winstanley's five-hole for a 3-1 deficit at 10:47. The goal was scored with two seconds left on the original penalty, but the referees waived off both penalties to kill some of the Beacons momentum. 

Norwich took control of the game heading into the third intermission, when Amanda Conway found a wide-open Sophie McGovern in front for an easy 2-on-1 goal with less than a minute to go in the third period. 

The Cadets closed out the scoring at 9:42 of the third period, when Kayla Goleniak's shot from the point deflected off a Beacon and in. Freshman Ann-Frederique Guay earned an assist for her first collegiate point on the play. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Norwich outshot the Beacons 41-21 and earned a 38-22 edge in face-offs. 
• Flagg's 36 saves are her third-most as a Beacon. The senior goalie did not allow a goal on 34 shots last weekend. 
• The Beacons went 1-6 on the power-play and held Norwich to an 0-3 showing. 
• Norwich has now won eight-straight games over the Beacons since the 2016 NEHC Finals. The Cadets lead the all-time series 20-4. 
• Junior Kelsey Ryan (Burlington, Mass.) led the Beacons with five shots, while Katie Leffler (Key Largo, Fla.) went 14-31 in the face-off dot. 

WHO'S NEXT 

UMass Boston will travel to Johnson & Wales University on Saturday at 6:45 for a conference contest.