By Abbi Holt
The vibes were immaculate today for the 5 – 2 Pride win at Warrior Ice Arena for College Day. The visiting BU Athletic band pumped up the sell-out crowd, dancing and chanting as they played. The fans came out in style (as you can see on our twitter feed). The President of MassArt, Mary Grant, dropped the ceremonial puck and we were off!
Within moments, Loren Gabel and Élizabeth Giguère did a quick give-and-go sequence, and Gabel scored with a strike from the hash marks that squeezed in between Whale goalie Abbie Ives and the post. The second goal came ten minutes later, when Christina Putigna, from behind the net, slid a little pass into the scrum at the goal mouth, and Taylor House was able to tap it in despite the chaos. “It just ended up right on my stick which was good” House said to ESPN with a smile.
Game image courtesy of the Boston Pride
The Whale, however, is one of the few teams that has beaten Boston, and they clearly came to win. They pushed hard with numbers up high and were able to get not one, but two shots by wall that is Corinne Schroeder. The first came from Alyssa Wohlfeiler on an attempt off her own rebound. The Whale, however, left themselves vulnerable by putting everyone on offense, and Loren Gabel struck back quickly on a break away behind the defense. Boston would get two more (one from Jillian Dempsey and one from Élizabeth Giguère with an epic fall-down assist from Gabel) before the Whale could to get their second. Caitrin Lonergan finally snuck one in behind Schroeder at the post off of another rebound.
Now, If you are starting to question Schroeder’s absolute peak excellence, look carefully at the shots on goal for the game, because the Pride had a respectable 33 and the Whale had 50. You read that right: almost 20 more than Boston, and Schroeder stopped 48 of them.
In the end the Whale did better than many teams, but the Pride remain number.
Next game: 8pm on Feb. 18 vs. the Montreal Force home at the Warrior Ice Arena and on ESPN.
Boston Women's Sports 
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