It was all smiles for the Rivier women's hockey team on Saturday in a 5-2 win over Anna Maria at Conway Arena. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It’s been quite a different season for the Rivier University women’s ice hockey team, to be sure.

The Raiders had to go through a coaching change 10 days ago, but the biggest difference they’ve experienced?

Try winning.

Rivier, in just its third year as a program, improved to 10-9-3 with a 5-2 win over Anna Maria on Saturday afternoon at Conway Arena, sweeping the home-and-home series. They have won three out of four since stunningly replacing the program’s original head coach, Chris Czarnota, with Noelle Sass on an interim basis. Sass was hired several months ago as the Raiders’ full time women’s softball coach, but took over in a pinch. She played club hockey all through high school and then played four years Fontbonne Academy in Milton, Mass. and has coached the sport on the youth level.

Last weekend, the Raiders beat Worcester State in overtime on a Friday night but were beaten soundly here the next night. Friday they beat the AMCATS in overtime as well, but yesterday they kept their foot on the gas.

“We’ve just been preaching to them to play Raider hockey, stick to what they know, bring the energy, keep it positive and make sure they know that we’re here for them and they’re getting the best experience possible,” Sass said as the Raiders had five different goal scorers.

Riv led 4-0, but Anna Maria staged a brief third period comeback on goals by Olympia Myers and Shayla MacDonald and before Riv’s Moly Hurley clinched things clinched things with an empty net goal with 52.8 seconds left.

“I never doubted them,” Sass said. “Never for one second. This is I think one of the best games they’ve played all season, and the energy they’ve brought into every period, especially that third period, there was no doubt in any of our minds.”

The Raiders got a goal at 17:13 by Rianna Rumptz, assisted by Jess Driscoll, at 17:13 of the first period, an elevated wrister just inside the blue line.

ReBecca McKelvey scored 54 seconds into the second period on the power play (Jillian Hallee assist) for a 2-0 lead, the first of three second period scores for the Raiders. The others were by Molly Dukesherer (7:14) and Jess Driscoll (12:50) with assists by Briana Paxon (two) and Rumptz.

In short, the Raiders were aggressive and opportunistic.

“That’s something that we’ve been working really hard on in practice,” Sass said. “We’ve been working on getting pucks hard to the net, working those loose areas, being as aggressive as possible to loose pucks.”

Rivier also honored its lone senior, captain Heather McHatton before the game, and she was a plus-2 on the ice. McHatton, who hails from Ashburnham, Mass., has been with the program from day one in the fall of 2021, and says that she and her teammates have weathered the recent storm. The school has not officially given a reason for the leadership change.

“The school administration has made it as easy as possible, and the team has banded together nicely,” McHatton said. “We’re a family, we’ve handled it as best we can, and we’re going to hopefully go win a championship.”

Sass was happy for Raider goalie Rachel Symmes, who struggled last Saturday but bounced back nicely with 36 saves yesterday.

“She needed a little bit of a bounce-back game and that’s exactly what she got,” Sass said. “Give her back a little bit of confidence and pump her up a bit moving toward the playoffs.”

It certainly has been a unique experience for Sass, who is basically coaching two sports for the next couple of weeks. She didn’t flinch when the Rivier administration asked her to help out, even though it meant long days for part of the month. She’s being assisted by a group of coaches: Hugh Murphy, the only staff holdover; plus women’s lacrosse coach Maura Ellins and field hockey coach Hayley Sutherland.

“The important thing for me was to make sure these girls had somebody who could lead them through the end of the season,” she said. “A little bit of long days, but my (softball) team is very supportive of me being with (hockey), and this team is very supportive of me being with softball. They’re giving me what I need, in a little bit of grace at times. I’m being very honest with them on what I need and what I can do to execute for them.”

The Raiders have a home-and-home next weekend vs. the Mass. College of Liberal Arts – their home game is going to be at theTsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. next Saturday – before the four-team ECHA tournament Feb. 23-24.

“This year’s totally different,” McHatton said. “There’s more of a family mentality on our team, we’ve really stuck together. … We’ve played hard all year.

“Today we showed our true potential to everyone in the stands, as well as our coaches.”

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