The women’s hockey team was dealt its first loss and tie this weekend to bring its season record to 5-1-1. The Jeffs faced two non-conference opponents this weekend in No. 3 Norwich and Manhattanville. On Friday Night, the team traveled up to Norwich, Vermont losing their first game of the season in a 4-3 heartbreaker. The Jeffs hosted Manhattanville at Orr Rink on Saturday, tying the score 2-2.
“We feel good about how the season is going so far,” senior captain Madeline Tank. “We’ve won all of our conference games, which is great. And while it would have huge to have a win or two this past weekend, we feel really good about how stacked up against Norwich and Manhattanville, two tough out-of-conference competitors.”
The game against Norwich was back and forth for most of the game. The first period was a deadlock with no scores on either side. During the second period, the Cadets of Norwich found the back of the net first, off of a power play. Less than a minute later, the Jeffs answered. Norwich’s Tiberi was called for tripping setting the Jeffs up with a player-up advantage. Tank and fellow senior Emily Flom assisted as Caitlyn Ryan ’17 fired in a great shot on goal from the blue line. Further into the second period, Norwich’s Schwenzfeier, who was also responsible for the first Cadet goal, scored an unassisted goal on Amherst’s sophomore goalie Yuna Evans.
“The Norwich game was a thrilling affair. The action was fast paced and exciting for the full 60 minutes. It was a hard fought contest by both teams,” Coach Jeff Matthews said.
Down 2-1 going into the final period, Amherst wasted little time in getting the score back to even. First-year Brenna Sullivan scored just 44 seconds into the period in a mad scramble of bodies in front of the Norwich goal. Norwich fired back less than a minute later taking another one goal lead 3-2. Midway through the final period, Amherst had another big opportunity to bring the score even. The Cadets’ Joyce was called for tripping and Amherst had another power play. Ryan hit the inside right post and Tank picked up the rebound firing into the back of the net. With a score of 3-3 against a talented team, Amherst was looking great. Norwich scored with a little over three minutes to play leaving the score at 4-3. Coach Jeffery Matthews pulled Evans in hopes of finding one more goal to push the Jeffs into overtime. The Jeffs put up three shots, but no goals. The loss was the first on the season.
“The key moments for us were every time we were able to bounce back after giving up a goal,” Tank said. “We were never down by more than one goal, so we’re excited that we were able to continual fight against a solid team.”
On Saturday, the Jeffs hosted the Valiants of Manhattanville at Orr Rink.
“We didn’t get back until late on Friday night so it was a quick turn around, but we felt ready to play again because we wanted to rebound from the loss,” Tank said.
Manhattanville struck first in the opening period of the game off a shot by Bachand. Losing 1-0 at the opening of the second period, Flom found an Audrey Duquette ’17 rebound and sunk the punk into the back of the net to tie the score. Six minutes later, Manhattanville’s O’Brien scored on Jeffs’ goalie Sabrina Dobbins ’18 to get another one point lead. The Jeffs continued to push as they held a 17-5 shot advantage in the second period, but Manhattanville’s goalie Shaugnessy made 16 saves.
Entering into the third period, Manhattanville started off with a power play advantage, but was unable to convert. Tori Salmon ’15 shot the puck on goal following a pass from first-year Alex Toupal and scored to tie the score. The rest of the period occurred without any goals forcing an overtime period. Amherst had the advantage in shots 3-2, but neither team was able to find the back of the net.
“We grinded it out and got better as the game progressed on Saturday night, but the game resulted in a 2-2 deadlock after 5 minutes of 5v5 OT play. We had a couple of great chances in the third to take the lead and a couple in OT to win, but neither team was able to put the third goal on the board as both goalies made some big saves to keep the game tied,” Coach Matthews said.
The Jeffs finish their 2014 part of their season with a 5-1-1 record. They will return to action at Orr Rink tonight against Plymouth State and continue competition over interterm facing upcoming NESCAC opponents. January will be a busy time for the Jeffs as they have seven away games during interterm from Jan.3 to Jan 20. They return home on January 27 against Salve Regina on home ice.
“Interterm is a good mix of non-NESCAC and conference games, so we’re also excited for that stretch of the season because January is such a good time for us to just focus on hockey because there’s nothing else to do,” Tank said.
