Vermont Stun Top Seeds UMass Lowell 3-2 and UAlbany Survive Maine Shootout to Set Up America East Final

The America East final will have a very different look to the one the seedings predicted. Top seeds UMass Lowell are out, second seeds Maine are out, and Friday’s championship game at UAlbany will be No. 3 UAlbany against No. 5 Vermont.

Vermont did the first half of the damage. The Catamounts went to Wicked Blue Field and beat the regular-season champions UMass Lowell 3-2, backing up their quarterfinal win over New Hampshire and their regular-season overtime win over the same opponents. UMass Lowell had the league’s meanest defence, conceding barely a goal a game, and they’d won the regular-season title outright with a 2-0 win at UAlbany. None of that mattered on Tuesday. Vermont, the team that has reached the championship game in each of the past two seasons, are going back.

The other semifinal was even tighter. Maine, hosting as the No. 2 seed, led UAlbany 1-0 at halftime through Emily Chisholm, assisted by Saylor Kuefler. UAlbany thought they’d levelled with 5:55 to play, only for the goal to be overturned on review. Then came a late flurry of penalty corners, and with 5:41 left Quinty Reumer finally tied it, assisted by Mara Kuskes and Emma Staron.

Overtime couldn’t separate them, so it went to a shootout, and it went deep. Pilar Lorenzini and Kuskes converted for UAlbany, Kuefler replied for Maine, and then the misses piled up on both sides until Maine’s final attempt was confirmed missed on review. UAlbany won the shootout to take the game 2-1, and they did it the hard way: they outshot Maine 15-6 and won the corner count 9-3, but needed the last five minutes and then the shootout to get there. Annabel Halkes made seven saves in the Maine goal.

So Friday’s final, at UAlbany at 2 p.m. ET (12 a.m. PKT on Saturday), is a rematch with a twist. UAlbany lost 2-0 at home to UMass Lowell in the regular-season finale, then watched the team that beat them get knocked out. Vermont arrive as the form team of the tournament, with a quarterfinal shutout and a semifinal upset already banked. The winner takes the America East’s automatic NCAA tournament berth. On current form, you’d be brave to pick against Vermont, but UAlbany have home turf and a shootout win under their belts.