AMHERST, Mass. -- Lady Icers coach Chris Whittemore, rarely at a loss for words, was left shaking his head.
It was mere minutes after his team had been shut down by Massachusetts, 3-0, yesterday at the Mullins Center and Whittemore couldn't say anything.
Whittemore and his team witnessed what may have been the goaltending performance of the year in ACHA women's hockey: a 27-save, acrobatic performance by UMass goalie Becky Trudel that left pretty much everyone in the stands scratching their heads.
It came on the heels of Trudel making 26 saves Saturday night in a 2-1 win for the Minutewomen and helped solidify UMass' (9-4-0, 4-2-0 ECWHL) No. 2 ACHA East ranking.
"You see this once in a blue moon, where a goalie will win you a hockey game," Whittemore said.
Surely, Trudel wasn't the only reason UMass won yesterday's game. It seemed like Penn State (9-4-1, 6-4-0 ECWHL) was snake-bitten from the opening faceoff; passes didn't link up with the intended parties, shots clanged off the post, turnovers took place at inopportune times.
Trudel just aggravated the issue with constant lying-on-her-back, topsy-turvy wacky saves.
"Even though she may have been out of position, she just got there [to make the save]," Whittemore said. "That was definitely a Dominik Hasek performance."
Penn State put 11 shots on Trudel in the third period yesterday, but each time it seemed like an opening was present, Trudel closed it off. Junior forward Alex McVicker had a couple of those point-blank opportunities. So did her linemate, Katie King.
The Minutewomen took a 1-0 lead at 14:54 of the second period when Laura Walendziewicz went to the left of Penn State goalie Tara Wheeler, putting the rebound home.
The Lady Icers got the first five shot attempts of the third period, three of them coming on power plays (where Penn State was 0-for-5), but it was all for naught.
UMass went up 2-0 with 3:15 remaining on a Aleta Mills tally. Mills added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 39 seconds left to cement UMass' win.
Mills scored three of the Minutewomen's five goals on the weekend.
Her tally at 12:11 of the second period Saturday proved to be the game-winner.
