RUTLAND, Vt. – Tabby Jones picked up an assist for the Keene State College women's ice hockey team on the tying goal in the first period, and despite her third period goal, bring her total to tallying a point in each of the five recent KSC goals, the Spartans of the University of Vermont State Castleton had already netted four goals in the contest as the Owls' comeback attempt fell short and KSC was eliminated from the first ever Little East Conference women's ice hockey tournament.

Records

• Keene State: 10-16-0 (7-11-0 LEC)
• Castleton: 12-14-0 (7-11-0 LEC)

How it Happened


Castleton opened the game attack applying pressure on the Owls' defense early on as 2:54 into the period KSC was called for their first penalty of the game, resulting in a handful of shots from the Spartans. The Owls' goaltender, Ai Chung, saved the first three shots on target over the penalty kill, but Mikayla Brightman Spartans broke through for the Spartans, scoring the first goal of the game, 4:31 into the contest. Two minutes later, the Owls had their first power play opportunity, but KSC was unable to capitalize on the opportunity as Gianna McCusker saved the Owls' two shots over the extra-skater advantage. Just under a minute after the Spartans returned to even strength, Ellie Patrick drew even for the Owls as Emily Edmunds sent a pass from behind the Owls' goal out to Tabby Jones, who gave it to Patrick flying into the Spartans' end before burying it past McCusker to tie the game with 10:24 remaining in the period. Both goalies made a pair of saves over the next six minutes, but with 3:25 remaining in the first, Maddy Jorgenson put the Spartans back up a goal. The rest of the period McCusker kept the Owls off the board with a pair of saves to keep Castleton up a goal heading into the first intermission.
 
Just as they did at the beginning of the first period, Castleton took advantage of the Owls' early period in the second period as Amanda Vaughn scored a power play goal 2:12 into the second after Chung saved the first two shots from the Spartans during the penalty kill. McCusker kept the Owls from answering right back with another goal over the next three minutes with three saves, before Chung made three more in a row prior to another penalty called against the Owls, 8:45 into the period. The Owls defense held strong over the two-minute penalty kill as they did not allow a shot to reach Chung, thanks to four blocked shots by KSC's defense to kill off the penalty. Nearly a minute after the Owls killed off their last penalty, they were called for another, but this time the puck did find Chung, but she saved all four shots over the two minutes. With under four minutes remaining in the second, both teams were called for a penalty, before KSC was called for another, sending the game to 4-on-3 favoring the Spartans for 1:23. Chung anchored down and saved all of the six shots she faced while the Owls were a skater down, while the Owls' defense helped with a pair of blocked shots. Before the period was over, Castleton tried to tack on another goal in the last minute and a half, but the Owls' defense blocked three more shots to limit the lead to two heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation.
 
The Spartans started the third period hot, just as they did the other two, but this time, Chung made five saves in the opening 2:39 of the third period. Castleton gave the Owls a great chance early in the third to start to mount a comeback with a power play, but KSC was unable to even get a shot off over the 1:52 that the Owls had an extra skater and got called for another penalty to negate the remaining eight seconds on the power play. Chung held the Spartans off the board to kill the Owls' penalty off with three saves over the next 1:52. 8:51 into the third KSC had another opportunity to pull within a goal with another extra skater opportunity, but McCusker saved both shots from the Owls over the two minutes. Over the next five minutes as the clock started to wind down in the second half of the third period, KSC was called on two separate penalties, but Chung kept the Owls close by making eight saves as the game moved to under five minutes remaining in regulation. 11 seconds into the third Owls' penalty in a five-minute span, Castleton netted their third power play goal of the game as Chung made the initial save on Ellie Schliebener, but Amanda Vaughn put the rebound into the back of the net to take a 4-1 lead with 3:49 left to play. After an offensive zone faceoff win by Patrick with 1:55 remaining, Jones deked through the Spartans' defense and sent a shot over McCusker to pull back within a pair with 1:43 remaining. The rest of the way with Chung pulled for the final 61 seconds, KSC was unable to complete the late comeback as the Spartans eliminated the Owls from the first ever LEC women's ice hockey tournament.
next few minutes, Chung made three more saves for the Owls, but 14:43 into the contest, Audrey Donahue found the back of the net from a shot from the blue line to put the Huskies up 1-0 with just over five minutes remaining in the first period. With 3:24 remaining in the first, USM had their first power play opportunity of the day, but Chung shut the Huskies down, saving both shots for the Owls on the penalty kill. Chung tacked on another two saves in the final minute of the period to hold USM's lead to 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
 
Inside the Crease

• With the defeat, Keene State falls to 1-5 in the all-time series against Castleton.
• Chung held strong for the Owls, as she made 42 saves in net, while McCusker only made 18. Chung rounds out her first two years as an Owl with 1,056 saves.
• Jones recorded a goal and an assist to round out her freshman season for the Owls as she accounted for all five of the Owls most recent goals, assisting on the first four, and scoring the final goal of the season for KSC, after having just three points prior to the last two games of the season for the Owls.
• Patrick ended her scoring drought late in the season and averaged a goal a game over the final four games of the Owls' season to tie teammate Brianna Finke for a team-high 17 points over the 2025-2026 season.
• Patrick also led the Owls on defense with six shots blocked on the day, bringing her season total to 79 blocked shots, the most by an Owl in a season and over double the number of shots blocked that the second leading shot blocker had for the Owls this season as she also led the LEC in shots blocked in its inaugural season.
• Castleton had the advantage on faceoffs on the day as KSC was held to 21-for-66 (31.8%) on faceoffs.

 
Up Next
 
KSC falls to 10-16-0 in the program's second season and first season in the Little East Conference.
Castleton moves on to take on LEC No. 1 seed and No. 3 in NCAA Division III women's ice hockey seed Norwich University in the LEC Semifinals on Saturday, February 28.