RUTLAND, Vt. – Castleton fell behind early in the first period, but Anna Daniels scored twice to propel the Spartans to a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory over the UMass Boston Beacons in the Pink the Rink game at Spartan Arena.

Daniels and Molly Howard led the Castleton offense with two points apiece, while Paula Stephens made 33 straight saves to capture the win. With today's victory, Castleton improves to 9-8-1 (4-5-1 ECAC East) on the season and snaps their three-game losing streak. UMass Boston, meanwhile, suffers just their third conference loss of the year and now sits at 5-3-2 in the ECAC East and 8-5-4 overall.

Castleton dominated the possession and tempo in the opening period of play, but it was the Beacons who struck first when Kat Armstrong capitalized on a power play opportunity to give the away side an early 1-0 lead. Just 17 seconds into the first, Armstrong received a pass at the top of the point and delivered a shot through traffic that beat Castleton's Paula Stephens for her second goal of the year. 

After being held scoreless for more than 28 minutes, the Spartans finally found an equalizer when Daniels netted her first goal of the game at the 8:07 mark in the middle frame. On a power play opportunity, Howard fired a shot from the side of the goal that was pushed aside by the Beacons' Kailyn Burke, but Daniels was there to knock home the rebound and even the game at one.

Daniels struck again just over four minutes later with her seventh goal of the season to give Castleton its first lead of the game. A UMass Boston turnover created a three-on-one break for the home side, and the Spartans took advantage. Lisa Kilroy sent a pass to Daniels in front of the net, and the junior slipped the puck past Burke, making it 2-1 in favor of Castleton.

In the final frame, the Spartans were able to withhold the Beacons attack and shutout the away side, as Castleton captured its fourth conference victory of the season at Spartan Arena. 

Paula Stephens turned in a fantastic performance in net by stopping 33 of the 34 shots that she faced to improve to 5-3-1 on the year. Her counterpart, Burke, suffered her third loss of the season after producing 31 saves.

The Spartans return to action next Friday at 4 pm when they host Holy Cross for a conference at Spartan Arena.