Nobody’s perfect
The last two teams with perfect records, No. 4 Harvard and No. 10 Dartmouth, journeyed to the North Country, and each went winless on the trip.
The Big Green fell twice, 2-1 at St. Lawrence and 3-0 at No. 7 Clarkson. Kennedy Marchment’s second-period goal proved decisive on Friday, after she had earlier assisted on Amanda Boulier’s power-play tally. Dartmouth’s attempt to rally only produced Laura Stacey’s fourth goal of the year. Carmen MacDonald made 27 saves to take the win.
On Saturday in Potsdam, the Big Green offense continued to sputter, with Shea Tiley turning away 24 shots in earning the fourth shutout of her debut season. Shannon MacAuley assisted on Cayley Mercer’s goal in the final minute of the first period, and then MacAuley scored two of her own late in the game.
The Golden Knights began the weekend by escaping a two-goal hole to tie Harvard, 2-2. Haley Mullins and Sydney Daniels staked the Crimson to their lead by the halfway point, but Olivia Howe reduced the margin at 19:24 of the second period. Renata Fast tied it up after the intermission, and that’s how it ended.
Both the Saints and the Crimson got their offenses clicking on Saturday, and Kayla Raniwsky scored 66 seconds into overtime to give SLU a 5-4 triumph. Miye D’Oench forced OT when she broke in and placed a snipe under the bar with less than two minutes left in regulation. Samantha Reber had a goal and two helpers to pace Harvard’s offense. St. Lawrence got two goals and an assist from Jenna Marks and three assists by Jacqueline Wand.
Still unbeaten
No. 1 Boston College and No. 5 Quinnipiac have yet to lose, with the only blemish on the record of each being a single tie.
The Eagles drubbed New Hampshire twice, 10-0 and 5-0, in a home-and-home series. Alex Carpenter and Haley Skarupa each had a trio of goals to go with three helpers over the 120 minutes. Kristyn Capizzano and Tori Sullivan also had two-goal games. Katie Burt played five of the periods in net and saved all 24 shots she faced.
No. 5 Quinnipiac continued its march through overmatched opponents by dismantling Rensselaer, 6-1, and Union, 5-0. Erica Udén Johansson powered the offense with three points in each contest, including three goals on the weekend. Nicole Connery hit the net twice in the victory over the Engineers. Coach Rick Seeley described his team’s effort against RPI as “sloppy,” but he felt the domination of the Dutchwomen may have been one of his club’s “best 60 minutes of the year.” The Bobcats outshot Union, 63-8, including not yielding a shot on goal in the opening period.
Winless no more
Cornell started to find the range in skating to home wins over Brown, 5-1, and Yale, 6-2. Brianne Jenner and Jillian Saulnier tallied twice, Erin O’Connor had three primary assists, and Paul Voorheis recorded 22 saves in toppling the Bears. Taylor Woods made her first start on defense and responded with two goals, and O’Connor had three more points as five of the six defensemen got onto the score sheet against Yale; Emily Fulton led the forwards with three helpers.
Providence tasted victory for the first time on Saturday, stopping Northeastern by a 4-1 decision. Allie Morse made 42 saves and received offensive support from goal scorers Allison Micheletti, Brittney Thunstrom, Cassidy Carels, and Beth Hanrahan. The Huskies got revenge on Sunday with a 6-2 reversal, sparked by two goals and an assist by Kendall Coyne and three helpers from Heather Mottau.
How the rest of the top 10 fared
No. 3 Wisconsin unleashed an offensive barrage in pummeling Minnesota State, the last remaining winless team, 8-2 and 8-0. Annie Pankowski’s hat trick highlighted Thursday’s game. Sydney McKibbon led in the goal-scoring department with two on Friday in support of Jorie Walters’ 18-save shutout. Blayre Turnbull contributed three points in each outing.
No. 6 Boston University had its week get off to a shaky start when it dropped a 6-3 decision on home ice to Northeastern on Tuesday. Coyne netted a hat trick and added two assists; McKenna Brand had the first two-goal game of her young career. The Terriers regrouped by sweeping Connecticut in a home-and-home series and got Marie-Philip Poulin back from injury in the process. Maddie Elia’s second goal of the game with 30 seconds remaining nudged BU to a 3-2 victory in the first game. Poulin scored twice in the 4-2 win at home on Sunday, and Victoria Bach potted a goal in all three games on the week.
No. 2 Minnesota rebounded from its first series loss in over four years with a sweep of Ohio State by 4-2 and 5-3 scores. Both teams had players break out of scoring slumps. OSU’s Taylor Kuehl scored her first three goals of the year, with two of them coming on Friday. After not finding the net in a month, Minnesota’s Meghan Lorence broke out with a four-goal series, including a hat trick on Saturday. Teammate Kate Schipper moved from center to wing and responded with a goal and an assist in each skate, her first goals as a sophomore, and Rachael Bona had a five-point weekend. Buckeyes Sara Schmitt and Claudia Kepler had a goal and two assists in the series.
Also traveling to Columbus was No. 8 Mercyhurst for a Tuesday night game with Ohio State. The Lakers squelched OSU’s offense, holding it to 16 shots in goaltender Amanda Makela’s fifth shutout of the season. Sarah Robello, Hannah Bale, and Jenna Dingeldein supplied the goals in the 3-0 victory, with Dingeldein hitting an empty net.
No. 9 Minnesota-Duluth swept a series at St. Cloud State, 6-1 and 1-0. In the opener, Ashleigh Brykaliuk contributed three points, and Katerina Mrázová hit the twine twice. Kayla Black recorded 18 saves to get the shutout, while Brienna Gillanders scored the game’s only goal on Saturday.
Back and forth
In the wildest series of the week, Vermont claimed a pair of see-saw battles at Syracuse, 6-5 in overtime and 5-4. The Orange raced to a three-goal lead after 20 minutes of the opener, but the Catamounts turned the tables in the next stanza to produce a 3-3 stalemate. Each team was unable to hold a lead in the third frame. Brittany Zuback scored for the second time 1:42 into OT to end matters. Dayna Colang had a hat trick and Amanda Pelkey four points to fuel UVM to that point. For the Orange, Stephanie Grossi supplied a three-point game and Jessica Sibley tallied twice.
On Saturday, Pelkey scored twice to give the visitors a two-goal lead by the 7:23 mark, but Melissa Piacentini had a goal and two assists for Syracuse as it scored four of the next five tallies to claim a third-period lead. However, Casey Leveillee netted her first goal of the year while short-handed, and rookie defenseman Amanda Drobot knocked in the first goal of her career 99 seconds later to win it for Vermont.
Other action
Bemidji State kept rolling by sweeping North Dakota, 4-1 and 2-1. UND scored the first and last goal of the series, but the Beavers rattled off six straight in between. Friday’s win was keyed by a goal and an assist from Kaitlyn Tougas and a goal and a helper by her linemates, Stephanie Anderson and Alex Citrowske. Kristin Huber and Hanna Moher scored on Saturday. Brittni Mowat made 57 saves over the two contests.
Princeton let two third-period leads slip away, but prevailed in overtime over both Union and Rensselaer. Haley Welch scored an extra-attacker goal for the Dutchwomen with 34 seconds left, but Molly Contini produced a 3-2 win for the Tigers. Jaimie McDonell and Kelsey Koelzer assisted her after scoring goals of their own back in the first period. On Saturday, RPI’s Laura Horwood knotted the game after Morgan Sly had opened the scoring, but Cristin Shanahan decided the 2-1 affair in Princeton’s favor. Kimberly Newell made 20 saves.
RIT scored once in each period and Ali Binnington made 22 saves in a 3-0 win over Penn State. Mackenzie Stone led with a goal and an assist. Penn State bounced back with a 3-2 win when Caitlin Reilly scored her second goal of the day 3:02 into overtime.
Yale’s Jaimie Leonoff made 18 saves to blank Colgate, 3-0. Jackie Raines, Stephanie Mock, and Krista Yip-Chuck supplied the goals.
The Raiders rebounded to defeat Brown, 4-3. Megan Sullivan struck 2:15 into overtime after assisting twice in regulation, foiling the Bears, who had fought back from three one-goal deficits.
