The Raiders celebrate with goalie Taylor Bruno after beating Salem State in last week's MASCAC semis, giving them the spot in tonight's finals vs. Worcester State in Worcester, Mass. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

There’s a lot of familiarity for the Rivier University women’s hockey team when the puck drops tonight at the Worcester Ice Center at 7:20.

For one, the Raiders are playing in their third straight conference final and second straight MASCAC final.

Second, the opponent is one they’ve not only played three times this year already, but also did two years ago in a title game, Worcester State, and in the MASCAC semifinals a year ago.

“Incredible, this is the third year in a row, hopeully the third time’s the charm, we’ll see but you never know,” Rivier coach MaryKate Drinkwater said. “We’ll see what we can do. We’ll work our hardest, that’s all that matters.”

The Raiders are starving for this. A year ago they lost a grueling four overtime MASCAC final at Plymouth State, which is no longer in the conference. Raiders goaltender Taylor Bruno didn’t play in that epic, the longest Division III women’s hockey game ever, but she’s happy to get the nod tonight as she has most of this season.

“It’s unreal, back in this position again,” Bruno said.

Worcester State is 17-9 overall, 10-2 in the conference. Emily Johns leads the Lancers with 11 goals but Cailey Ryan is their leading point-getter with seven goals and eight assists. The Raiders will try to solve Lancers netminder Kelsey Czerniawski, who has a 1.29 GAA in 19 games with a .958 save percentage.

Trying to solve her will be a Raider offense that has many parts, led by freshman Chloe Bryda with her 15 goals and 12 assists. Her 26 regular season points led the conference. Lexi Davies is also a threat with nine goals and three assists.

Bruno, meanwhile, has a GAA of 1.62 and a .951 save percentage.

The games between the two teams have all been close. The Lancers won 1-0 back on Nov. 15 on a third period goal by Avery Ireland in Worcester and 3-1 at Conway Arena on Feb. 7, scoring three third period goals after being down 1-0. Then they triumphed 3-2 in the regular season finale in Worcester with the same thing – three third period goals after Davies and Bryda had scored in the second to give Riv a 2-0 lead.

What’s it going to take this time for the Raiders to finally push through?

“Grit,” Drinkwater said. “I don’t think it’s going to be talent on either side, it’s going to be grit and who has passion.”