Rivier women's hockey players celebrate their game-winning goal over Worcester State in the MASCAC semis on Friday in Worcester, Mass. (Courtesy photo by Kyle Prudhomme/Rivier Athletics)

WORCESTER, Mass. – the fourth time was the charm.

With 1:17 remaining in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Semifinal, Rivier University women’s hockey senior forward Briana Paxson walked out from behind the goal line and fired a low shot past Worcester State’s Kelsey Czerniawski to take down the Lancers by a final score of 1-0 Friday afternoon at the Worcester Ice Center.

With the win, the third seeded Raiders punched their ticket to the inaugural MASCAC Championship game next Friday, March 7, and now hold a 15-10-1 record. Rivier will face-off against No. 1 Plymouth State, which routed No. 4 Anna Maria 6-1 in the other semifinal. The game will be at PSU’s Hanaway Rink at 6 p.m.

The No. 2 seed Lancers bowed out of the tournament, finishing the campaign with a 13-11-2 record.

“It was absolutely incredible,” Raiders coach Marykate Drinkwater said. “From the start of the puck drop, we were on it. After the second period going into the third, I was so confident.

“We had a ton of chances outshooting them. I said all night it’s going to take one shot, and it never has to be pretty. Just put it on net and that’s exactly what Paxton did.”

This was the first victory over Worcester St. for Rivier in the 2024-25 campaign after posting an 0-2-1 mark against the Lancers in the regular season.

After two scoreless periods, the Raiders were ahead in the offensive battle, outshooting the Lancers 24-16. Despite their efforts, both teams headed into the locker for the second intermission with zeros on the board.

The third period started off much like previous two, but this time Worcester St. had been the dominant offensive power. With just over a minute remaining in regulation, first-year forward Keegan McGaheran won an offensive-zone puck battle along the low boards with Paxson taking it off her stick and sending home the eventual game-winner.

After calling a timeout, the Lancers elected to pull Czerniawski in an effort to send the game to overtime but were unable to score and prolong the contest.

Meanwhile, Rivier senior goaltender Rachel Hinkley recorded 29 saves in the shutout win, her fourth of the season and her eighth of her career. Rivier outshot Worcester St. 34-29 in the victory.

“Hinkley has been phenomenal all year, I have so much confidence in her,” Drinkwater said. “When the puck enters the zone, I have all the confidence in the world she’s going to make the stop.

“As for (Czerniawski), she’s incredible, and like I said earlier, it’s just going to take a simple shot on her, she’s so big, has a great glove, she takes up a lot of space. A simple little shot on net might go past her.”

Both teams went 0-for-2 on their power play opportunities.

The Raiders were careful not to dwell on their past failures vs. WSU.

“The seniors, who I’ve aways said since Day 1 have created a great foundation,” Drinkwater said. “We didn’t really talk about how many times we’ve lost to them, we just talked about how we could beat them, and that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t look in the past, we just looked to the future in that we had this game. We were confident but never cocky, and I think that’s what led us to success.”

PLYMOUTH ROLLS

In the other semi, Morgan Cunningaham scored two goals for Plymouth State. Other goals were by Juliet Rutigliano, Lilli Warnock, Jacqueline Martin and Libby Carter.

The Bobcats, now 17-7-2, led 5-0 after two periods. Anna Maria winds up at 10-15-2.

Rivier won two of three games against PSU during the regular season.

(Telegraph Staff Writer Tom King contributed to this report.)