Weekly Release: Close Contests Highlight New Year
ALBANY, N.Y. - ECAC Hockey resumed play over holiday break into
the new year and featured a familiar tone, as its teams were
involved in close games. Nine out of the 11 contests were
decided by two goals or fewer, with three spilling over to the
extra session. The holiday break also witnessed a successful
stop on the Qwest Tour at Quinnipiac's TD Bank Sports Center
featuring the ECAC Hockey All-Stars hosting the USA National
Team.
Dartmouth played the most ambitious schedule among ECAC Hockey
women's teams, participating in three games over the break posting
a 1-1-1 record. In the Big Green's last game of 2009, they
netted a season-high three power play goals from three different
scorers in defeating Vermont, 4-2, in a northern border
battle. Dartmouth saw senior co-captain Sarah Parsons and
junior Amanda Trunzo collect two points with a goal and an assist
apiece. Dartmouth welcomed in the new year with a two
game set at Connecticut last Saturday and Sunday. In its
first game Dartmouth recovered from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the
game in the third period, but Connecticut never gave up its lead
and defeated the Big Green 3-2. On the following afternoon,
the Big Green killed off a five-minute major penalty, got a
game-tying goal from freshman Sasha Nanji on the power-play, and
earned a 3-3 tie with UConn in a game with 47 total penalty
minutes.
In the only conference games over the break, travel partners
Princeton and Quinnipiac played a home-and-home series with the
Tigers taking three of the four points. Princeton rallied
with two goals in the third period to forge a 2-2 tie at Quinnipiac
Thursday afternoon at the TD Bank Sports Center. Princeton
outshot Quinnipiac 32-19 in the tie. Victoria Vigilante made
30 saves, including three in overtime for Quinnipiac.
Princeton's Rachel Weber started the game and allowed both
goals. Cassie Seguin earned the tie in relief and made 13
saves. In another close game Saturday at Princeton, Danielle
DiCesare one-timed a pass from Paula Romanchuk just outside the
left side of the crease into the upper left corner of the net to
give the Tigers a 1-0 lead, which was how the game would end.
Bobcats' goalie Victoria Vigilanti recorded 26 saves on the day,
while her counterpart, Cassie Seguin, stopped 15 in her third
shutout of the season.
Yale faced two Hockey East foes in non-league action over the
break, dropping a 3-0 contest to Northeastern last Friday and then
bettering Vermont, 3-1 Saturday. Bulldogs netminder Jackee
Snikeris had shut out the Huskies in each of their past two
meetings, but a diving backhanded goal by forward Kristi Kehoe at
16:56 of the first ended that scoring drought for ninth-ranked
Northeastern. Two goals late in the third period gave NU the
3-0 win. Bulldogs featured a balanced attacked in Saturday's
win over Vermont, as they got goals from three different players --
including the first career goal from freshman defenseman Emily
DesMeules -- and also got assists from four different
players. There were completely different player combinations
on the ice for all three tallies. The one constant on the ice
all game was sophomore goalie Genny Ladiges, who made 19 saves for
the win.
Union earned a split in its two-game series with visiting North
Dakota over the break. On Friday junior forward and captain
Marissa Gentile scored the go-ahead goal to give the Dutchwomen a
3-1 win over North Dakota to open the new year. It was
Union's second win in three games and goaltender Alana Marcinko's
second career win. North Dakota would even the score the
following day as it blanked Union, 5-0.
Rookie Brittany Phillips scored the game-winning goal with just
10.2 seconds left in overtime to give Colgate a 5-4 victory against
10th-ranked Syracuse Saturday. The Raiders fought back from a
4-1 deficit after the first period to remain undefeated in its
all-time series against the Orange. Phillips added three more
points on top of the game-winner, including the Raiders' first goal
of the game and two assists, one on the game-tying goal.
Kimberly Sass finished with 32 saves for Colgate while Lucy
Schoedel had 31 for the Orange. The Raiders went 3-10 on the
power-play while Syracuse finished 3-9.
Brown opened the new year with a 2-0 win over Vermont as it scored
on its first power play of 2010 Sunday afternoon, as rookie Laurie
Jolin tallied an extra man goal. Fellow freshman Katie
Jamieson made 34 saves to pick up the shutout. Senior Sasha
Van Muyen added an empty net goal with less than a minute remaining
to provide the final margin.
The USA Women's Olympic team's 8-2 win against the ECAC Hockey
All-Stars drew a record crowd of 3,809 at Quinnipiac's TD Bank
Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. The event marked the best
attendance record that any New England women's ice hockey event has
ever collected. The total also ranks third amongst the best
attendance figures ever held at the TD Bank Sports Center.
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