Hope you all enjoyed your holiday season; we’re getting back into the swing of things in the D-III Women’s hockey world. This past week we had four games take place in Charleston, South Carolina and some New Year’s Eve games as well! We’ll also go over a close matchup between two teams up North.
Hockey Heads South!
We had an interesting set of games played in the state of South Carolina, Charleston to be exact, in the Carolina Ice Palace this past weekend, which featured a pair of west and east teams. Entering the weekend, here were the teams with their prior overall records: #6 Adrian (9-2-0 – NCHA), Hamline (7-3-0 – MIAC), Bowdoin (6-3-0 – NESCAC), & Williams (4-1-1 – NESCAC).
This set of games was not in a tournament format, rather, allowing each region to get two crossover games, the NESCAC simply switched opponents regardless of the results in the first games. Great to see, besides the fact hockey was expanded and shown to more individuals, especially at the Division III level, we also got the great crossover matchups between some great teams that we wouldn’t get otherwise.
Adrian vs Williams (Adrian 5-1)
The final score here doesn’t tell the whole story of this one. Adrian outshot Williams 51-18, Williams’ goaltender Erin Pye made a spectacular 46 saves in the loss (2 goals were empty-netters), and the game was tied 1-1 with eight minutes left in the 3rd period… Penalties were also quite low, which isn’t common in Adrian games, only one penalty for Adrian and two for Williams, all minors.
The 1st period was scoreless, then in the 2nd, a whole 18 seconds (00:18), Jocelin Hudanish put Adrian up 1-0, which would hold up until the 16:19 mark of the period when Williams’ Leah Rubinshteyn knotted it up at 1.
We entered the 3rd period tied at 1, this would last all the way until just over the midway mark when the floodgates seemingly opened in the Bulldogs favor. Kathryn Truban scored at 12:26 on the powerplay, giving Adrian the lead back. Une Bjelland would add a pair of goals, one being with the empty net, (16:40 & 17:29) which put Adrian up a quick 4-1, then keeping the goalie pulled, Nicole Pietrucha capped it off at 18:31 with another goal to extend the Bulldogs victory to 5-1.
Hamline vs Bowdoin (Hamline 4-0)
No accurate and/or valid box score available on both school websites, USCHO, NCAA, etc.
Thus, we have no recap. However, the Pipers start the weekend off with a shutout victory over the Polar Bears. Since there’s no recap, I’ll point out my strong liking for the Bowdoin mascot, the Polar Bear, one of the best in D3…
Adrian vs Bowdoin (3-2 OT)
This game once again was largely in part due to amazing goaltending, the score was a one-goal margin, requiring an extra five minutes of 3v3, Adrian outshot Bowdoin a lopsided 52-15, but Sarah Peterson despite the loss, made 49 saves for her Polar Bears, holding Adrian to three goals.
In Adrian’s two games vs Williams & Bowdoin, they outshot them 103-33…
This game, like the first, featured few penalties, only one minor penalty on Bowdoin, coming in the 1st period. Other than that, the 1st period featured one goal, coming a brisk 1:37 into the game from Adrian’s Karmen Anderson to give her Bulldogs a 1-0 lead headed into the 2nd.
Une Bjelland would continue her good weekend, scoring her first of two goals in this one at the 8:41 mark, just before the hallway point of the period, putting them up 2-0.
Bowdoin would come back, scoring a goal later in the 2nd at 16:23 (Jackie Miller) & early in the 3rd period from Meghan Montanaro to knot it up at 2 goals apiece, forcing overtime.
Very late in overtime, less than a minute remaining (4:11.2), Adrian’s Une Bjelland scored her second of the game and fourth of the weekend to give her squad the victory and get them out of the South undefeated.
Hamline vs Williams (Hamline 2-1)
This game featured another lopsided shot total, but if it wasn’t repetitive enough, another great goaltending performance by Williams’ Erin Pye, making 39 saves on 41 shots. The Pipers won the shot battle 41-16, but only won 2-1. Penalties in this game were slightly more prevalent, Williams committing four minors all in the middle frame, while Hamline had one minor late in the 1st period with under five seconds remaining.
The way it went in this game was an early Piper lead that they didn’t let go of. Hamline’s Annika Lindgren scored early in the 1st at 1:46, putting them up a quick 1-0. They doubled their lead later on the powerplay, coming in the 2nd period at 5:07 from Morgan Wohlers.
The two goal Hamline lead was cut in half midway through the final period, Anna DiChristina scored unassisted for the lone Ephs goal.
Thoughts
It’s always good to see D-III Women’s hockey head to other geographical areas, men’s as well for that matter, expanding the game and giving teams a fun trip, but most important for us non-casuals, it allows for opportunities like this for more east/west crossover games.
Minus the Hamline/Bowdoin game since there aren’t accurate stats readily available at the moment, an eye-opening stat from my viewing opinion was the shot totals. Obviously, the scores weren’t extremely lopsided as these shot totals may infer (for the three games with stats) if you didn’t see the final scores, but the west outshot the east 144-49 in three games and outscored them 14-4 in four games… Regardless of your view on the teams, that’s a huge disparity in one category.
But wait, there’s More! #3 Amherst vs Oswego (Amherst 2-1)
The other featured matchup of the weekend was between #3 Amherst (8-0-1) and Oswego State (5-5-1), who after this weekend will have had in my opinion one of the hardest schedules of anyone yet. They’ve faced: William Smith 2x (10-3-0) H/A, Plattsburgh (9-1-1) A, Cortland (8-3-1) A, Adrian 2x (11-2-0) AA, Amherst (8-0-1) A, & Plattsburgh 2x this weekend. Add onto that they’ll get Hamilton 1/16/24…
On the main note, in this one, it was a close game as most Amherst games tend to be, but as most Amherst games also tend to be, it resulted in a Mammoths victory.
Oswego goaltender Lexi Levy, despite the loss, made 45 saves in the game, giving up only two goals as Amherst outshot the Lakers 47-18. Natalie Stott had a rare non-shutout game, giving up one goal on 18 shots.
Unlike the games we discussed earlier, this one featured more penalties than the other four combined, Oswego committed 8 for 16 minutes, Amherst committed 4 for 8 minutes, funny enough, the 1st period only had a single penalty.
Lakers’ star Simone Bednarik put them up 1-0 early in the 2nd period at 1:07 after a scoreless opening frame. Amherst’s Anna Baxter would answer later in the period on the power play at the 12:08 mark to tie it up. Then finally, in the final period, Alyssa Xu, who continues to have a great season, scored early at 3:10. Holding up as the winning goal and keeping her Mammoths unbeaten thus far.
