In last week’s sole game action, the Amherst women’s ice hockey team dominated the Plymouth State Panthers, 7-1, at home in Orr Rink. With the non-conference win, the Mammoths’ record stands at 12-5-3 overall and 7-3-2 in the NESCAC.

While Plymouth State’s Shannon Hickey opened the scoring early for the Panthers, Amherst proceeded to explode with seven unanswered tallies.

Ava Simoncelli opened the floodgates, netting her second goal of the season to tie the game up eight minutes after Hickey had scored. In an impressive unassisted effort, Simoncelli collected the puck and sailed a hard shot to the back of the net.

Less than two minutes later, senior stud Alex Toupal received a pass from forward Katie Savage ’19 and blasted a shot from point-blank range to give the hosts a lead.

At the start of the second period, the game still seemed to be in the balance, but Savage put the game out of reach with a goal of her own, having collected the rebound from her line-mate Toupal’s initial. Senior Emma Griese widened the margin, tipping a shot by defender Anne Malloy ’20.

With the momentum firmly in favor of the Mammoths, Toupal tallied her second goal of the game to make the score 5-1 and close the scoring in the three-goal second period. Toupal ripped a low shot off first-year forward Emma Flynn’s assist.

Entering the third stanza of play, Toupal struck again on a power-play for her third hat trick of the season and her 14th goal overall. Capitalizing on the man-up advantage, Jocelyn Hunyadi ’19 notched her first point of the day on the assist to Toupal, who rifled the puck into the back of the net.

Savage concluded the rout with a late goal of her own, assisted by Toupal, who finished the day with an impressive five points, her highest total of the season. Additionally, goalie Sabrina Dobbins managed 20 saves in the effort.

Amherst will return to the ice for the penultimate weekend of regular season play, taking on Hamilton in a pair of home games on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10.