Engineers Edge Bobcats
HAMDEN, Conn. -- Sophomore goalie Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto,
ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) stopped 23 of the 24 shots she faced,
including 11 in the second period to lead the Rensselaer
women’s ice hockey team to a 2-1 win over Quinnipiac in ECAC
Hockey action on Friday afternoon. The Engineers improve to 9-5-2
overall and 5-1-1 in league play while the Bobcats drop to 2-17-1
and 1-6-1 in ECAC Hockey.
With the victory, Rensselaer is now undefeated through 10 of its
last 11 games dating back to October 24. The Engineers only loss
during that stretch came in a 5-0 loss at nationally-ranked
Dartmouth.
Rensselaer opened up a 1-0 lead at the 10:32 mark of the opening
period behind junior winger Allysen Weidner’s (Wichita,
KS/Shattuck St. Mary’s) team-leading sixth goal of the
season. Through a pileup in front of the net, Bobcats junior Nanna
Holm-Glaas (Segeltorp, Sweden/Danish National Team) was unable to
control a Kendra Dunlop (Granum, AB/Warner Hockey School) shot and
Weidner was there to poke in the rebound for the one-goal
advantage.
The Engineers continued to press in the middle stanza as Allison
Wright (Oakville, ON/Oakville Ice) converted a 2-on-1 opportunity
with a scorching wrist shot from the left circle over the shoulder
of Holm-Glaas at 4:02.
Holding a 2-0 lead, RPI found itself on the penalty kill at 8:33
as junior Janine Duffy (Toronto, ON/National Sports Academy) made a
move in the Engineers zone and was taken down after the shot by
Rensselaer defenseman Sierra Vadner (Apple Valley, MN/Minnesota
Thoroughbreds).
The Bobcats quickly capitalized during the man advantage as senior
Elyse Cole (Belleville, ON/Durham West Jr. Lightning) took a shot
through a screen in front of van der Bliek at 10:09 to cut the
Quinnipiac deficit to 2-1.
Despite the one-goal lead for RPI at the end of two periods,
Quinnipiac held a 12-3 advantage in shots for the stanza, including
six during back-to-back penalties on Vadner.
In the third period, the Bobcats had a number of opportunities to
tie things up, but could not get past the Rensselaer defense and
van der Bliek. Mid-way through the period, the Engineers’
netminder made a stellar save against Quinnipiac junior Kallie Flor
(Farmington, MN/Farmington) to preserve the lead.
The Bobcats gained a 5-on-3 advantage for 15 seconds later in the
period, but Rensselaer killed it with 52 seconds left on the clock.
Pulling Holm-Glaas with 30 seconds left, Quinnipiac attempted to
tie things up with the 6-on-4 advantage, but were unable to break
through.
In goal, van der Bliek made 24 saves to improve to 8-4-2 overall
and 5-1-1 in ECAC Hockey. Her counterpart, Holm-Glaas, stopped 19
shots in the loss for Quinnipiac and is now 1-12-1 overall and
0-4-0 in conference play.
The Engineers take to the ice for their final game of 2008 on
Saturday afternoon with a 4pm face-off at Princeton. The Bobcats
host Union, also at 4pm.












