ECAC jockeying
As ECAC Hockey teams try to work out the kinks, squads are fighting to establish position in the standings. No. 4 Quinnipiac has the early jump and is the lone remaining team unbeaten in league play.
The Bobcats claimed a key early-season showdown from No. 5 Clarkson on Friday, 1-0. Emma Woods beat Shea Tiley high to the blocker side for the only goal 13:39 into the second period. Chelsea Laden needed 15 saves to garner her seventh shutout.
On Saturday against S. Lawrence, Woods fired a low shot that eluded the glove of Carmen MacDonald to give Quinnipiac a first-period lead. The Saints bounced back with two goals in the second period, to hand the Bobcats their first deficit of the season. Brooke Webster buried a rebound before Jenna Marks converted off a feed from behind the goal. Midway through the third period, Nicole Connery redirected a centering pass from Morgan Fritz-Ward to yield a 2-2 tie, the first blemish on Quinnipiac’s ECAC slate, after it had won its first five league contests. The Bobcats have a game in hand as they are tied with Clarkson atop the conference, both having 11 points.
St. Lawrence slides into third place on the strength of the tie and a Friday win over fourth-place Princeton, 7-3. Marks had a goal and two assists, Webster scored twice, while Kayla Raniwsky and Kirsten Padalis had two-point games.
Clarkson salvaged two points out of the weekend with a 3-2 win on Saturday at Princeton. Amanda Titus had two points, assisting on Shannon MacAulay’s third-period game-winner, after opening the scoring 10 minutes into the game.
To be continued in February
No. 6 Harvard took a break from league action to travel to No. 7 Boston University, where the clubs skated to a 1-1 tie; they will meet on Feb. 3 in a Beanpot semifinal. On Friday, the teams exchanged power-play goals. Miye D’Oench struck for the Crimson with 7:48 elapsed; Samantha Sutherland netted the tying goal just past the halfway point. Emerance Maschmeyer needed 34 saves to preserve the tie for Harvard, while Victoria Hanson was less busy making 16 stops.
The Terriers concluded their weekend by dusting New Hampshire, 6-2. All but one of the game’s goals were scored on the power play, with BU converting on five of nine opportunities. Sarah Lefort had a hat trick and assisted on one of Victoria Bach’s pair of goals. Marie-Philip Poulin had three helpers, after having only one in her season to date.
One step forward, two steps back
Cornell drew within a game of the .500 mark with a 3-1 win over Colgate on Tuesday, with Erin O’Connor tallying the deciding goal in the opening minute of the third period. Then the Big Red were swept on the road at No. 10 Minnesota-Duluth, 7-2 and 2-0.
The Bulldogs have now won nine straight after opening 1-4-2. Senior Zoe Hickel netted three goals on the weekend. Ashleigh Brykaliuk scored in both games and Sidney Morin had four points in the series. Kayla Black earned the 22-save shutout.
How the rest of the top 10 fared
The other ranked teams in action took care of business with sweeps of unranked opponents.
No. 1 Boston College yielded the first goal of the series to Connecticut’s Marisa Maccario, but cruised to 6-1 and 6-0 wins from there. Alex Carpenter and Haley Skarupa both had three-goal weekends with an assist; Emily Pfalzer contributed four helpers.
Second-ranked Minnesota also allowed a single goal in sweeping Minnesota State, 5-1 and 4-0. Dani Cameranesi led with a hat trick on Friday and added another goal on Saturday. Hannah Brandt included three goals in her five-point series.
Ann-Renée Desbiens turned in back-to-back shutouts in No. 3 Wisconsin’s sweep of St. Cloud State, 4-0 and 3-0. Brittany Ammerman was heavily involved in the attack with two goals and three assists.
No. 8 Mercyhurst twice dispatched RIT by 4-1 scores. Emily Janiga had five points, with two of them being goals.
Other action
Northeastern got its offense going at Vermont’s expense, 7-3 and 5-1, scoring the first three goals in each contest. Hayley Scamura netted a hat trick in the first game. McKenna Brand scored the first two goals on Sunday after she had a three-point effort in the opener.
After not tasting victory in its first dozen skates, Providence has now come through with a win on back-to-back weekends. The Friars fell at Maine, 4-3, on Saturday; Jennifer More scored twice for the Black Bears. Beth Hanrahan’s short-handed goal with 17 seconds left in overtime salvaged a split via a 2-1 triumph for PC on Sunday.
Lindenwood also got a road split, winning its second contest at Penn State, 2-1, after suffering a 3-0 loss in the opener. Celine Whitlinger stopped all 21 shots on Friday and Laura Bowman had a goal and an assist. Alyssa West’s first goal of the season allowed Lindenwood to claim a comeback win on the rare day when Nicole Hensley only faced 11 shots.
Syracuse and Robert Morris split their series with ties, 2-2 and 1-1. In game one, Stephanie Grossi put the Orange ahead early, but Rikki Meilleur responded less than two minutes later. Mackenzie Johnston gave the Colonials a second-period lead that lasted all of 62 seconds until Melissa Piacentini forged a lasting deadlock. On Saturday, Julie Knerr struck three minutes in for Syracuse, but Johnston scored the game-tying goal on a second-period power play. Jessica Dodds made 64 stops on the weekend for RMU; Jenn Gilligan turned in 20 each day.
Ohio State came back from a two-goal deficit on Friday at North Dakota thanks to a pair of late tallies by Claudia Kepler, including a tying goal with two seconds left. Amy Menke and Andrea Dahlen had staked UND to a lead. The Buckeyes won the shootout to gain the extra point after the 2-2 tie. North Dakota bounced back with a 4-3 win on Saturday. Menke had a goal and two assists.
For some reason, Yale thought it would be a good idea to schedule Sacred Heart and won, 13-0, with a 74-6 bulge in shots. Jamie Haddad and Aurora Kennedy had hat tricks.
