BURLINGTON, Vt. – Ava Boutilier (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) recorded her eighth career shutout with a 30-save effort to backbone the University of New Hampshire women’s hockey team to Sunday night’s 2-0 victory against the University of Vermont at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

Boutilier stopped 11 shots in the third period, including four in a 30-second span when UVM had a 5-on-3 power play with less than four minutes remaining.

Emily Rickwood (Brantford, Ontario) and Lauren Martin (Cambridge, Ontario) scored goals one minute apart early in the third period to give UNH a 2-0 lead.

UVM goalie Natalie Ferenc was credited with 26 saves.

UNH (2-6-0 overall, 2-6-0 Hockey East) and UVM (1-1-0, 1-1-0) split the two-game weekend series.

UNH’s Annie Berry initiated the scoring sequence on the opening goal by winning the battle for the puck in the right corner along the boards to Rae Breton. Her pass back to the point found Rickwood, who blasted a shot into the upper-right corner at 2:24.

Kelly dumped the puck into the attack zone and Martin gained possession behind the net. She slipped a pass to Kyla Bent (Halifax, Nova Scotia) in the high slot and her slapshot ricocheted off tamara Thiérus to the right side of the net. Martin swept the puck across the goalmouth inside the far post for a 2-0 lead at 3:24.

UNH was whistled for two penalties at 16:58 to give Vermont a 5-on-3 power play for two minutes. In the next 30 seconds, Boutilier made three acrobatic saves to deny Corinne McCool three times.

The Catamounts were penalized for too many skaters at 17:54, but then pulled Ferenc for an extra skater with 1:45 left to once again have a two-skater advantage.

Boutilier made two more saves before both Wildcats returned from the penalty box to give UNH a power play with 62 seconds to play; UVM continued to play with an empty net, however, making it 5-on-5.

The Wildcats did not allow a shot the rest of the way, however, to preserve the victory.

The Wildcats’ next home game is scheduled for Dec. 23 (3 p.m.) versus Holy Cross.