United States wins Under-18 Championship
Connecticut signee Natalie Snodgrass’ second goal of the game 1:47 into overtime gave the U.S. a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Canada and its second straight gold medal.
Leads solidified
In all four leagues, the team that entered the weekend leading the conference maintained the advantage. Although the gap to the nearest pursuer didn’t increase, crossing a week off the remaining schedule and maintaining the status quo is always a good thing.
Quinnipiac gets help
In a week where the ECAC leader played a nonconference series while others cashed in some games in hand, the No. 4 Bobcats were able to maintain their margin when Harvard had a pointless weekend. Meanwhile, Quinnipiac swept visiting Robert Morris, 3-2 and 2-0.
Friday’s game wasn’t actually as close as the final score, as the hosts built a three-goal lead after two periods on goals from Nicole Kosta, Lindsey West, and Meghan Turner, and the Colonials didn’t get back within one until Rikki Meilleur’s extra-attacker goal with under eight seconds left. Natalie Fraser scored the other goal for the visitors, who got two assists from Amber Rennie. Taylar Cianfarano contributed a pair of helpers for the Bobcats.
Saturday, Sydney Rossman saved all 14 shots to record her 11th shutout of the season, tying her once more for the national lead. The game was scoreless until Nicole Connery tallied 3:03 into the third period. Cianfarano sealed the win with an empty-netter. Nicole Brown assisted on both. Jessica Dodds was a hard-luck loser, despite stopping 25 of 26 shots.
Mercyhurst gets split
A day after Syracuse shut out Mercyhurst, 2-0, to forge a tie atop the CHA, the Lakers reclaimed the solo lead with a 3-1 victory.
On Friday, the Orange scored twice from the blue paint. Nicole Ferrara swatted home a power-play rebound in the second period, and Emily Costales swung a puck around the goaltender a third of the way through the final frame. The Lakers were held to 16 shots, and Jenn Gilligan handled all of those.
Mercyhurst struck early on Saturday when Paige Horton and Jenna Dingeldein converted power-play opportunities in the opening stanza. Rachel Smith made it 3-0, and goalie Sarah McDonnell did the rest, yielding only a goal by Ferrara out of the 40 shots she faced.
Another Eagle reaches milestone
Haley Skarupa’s 100th goal at Boston College highlighted the No. 1 team’s sweep of Merrimack to run its perfect start to 23 games. She reached the century mark at 7:01 of the third period in Saturday’s game, her second goal of the game, and she also had two assists. Alex Carpenter matched her four points with a goal and three helpers. Makenna Newkirk scored twice. Gabriella Switaj gained the 6-0 shutout with eight saves.
The home-and-home series began on Friday at Merrimack, where Samantha Ridgewell made 52 saves to limit BC to goals from defensemen Toni Ann Miano and Megan Keller. Katie Burt backstopped the 10-save shutout as the Eagles won, 2-0.
Wisconsin heats up
As the temperatures fell in Bemidji, No. 2 Wisconsin’s offense started to heat up. Jenny Ryan’s tally in the final minute of the first period was the game’s only goal as the Badgers shut out No. 6 Bemidji State, 1-0, on Friday. Ann-Renée Desbiens’ shutout was her 11th of the season and the 28th of her career.
The Badgers completed the sweep in far different fashion, scoring a trio of goals in each of the first two periods and rolling over BSU, 7-1. Sarah Nurse and Emily Clark each netted a pair of tallies. There was only 2:06 remaining when Kristin Huber became the only Beaver to get a puck by Desbiens in four games played by the teams.
Dynamic first line
No ranked team was busier than No. 7 Northeastern, and the Huskies won three times to run their winning streak to nine games. The top line of Kendall Coyne, Hayley Scamurra, and Denisa Krížová dominated the score sheet, combining for 30 points on the week.
Coyne was involved in every goal, scoring twice and assisting on the other three, in Northeastern’s 5-1 defeat of Providence. Scamurra added a goal with three assists and Krížová potted two plus a helper.
Krížová had a hat trick with two assists as the Huskies blew out Maine, 8-1. Coyne was held without a goal, but made up for it with five helpers. She had two goals on Sunday as Northeastern completed the sweep of Maine, 5-2. Scamurra had a goal and two assists. Audra Richards scored in both games for the Black Bears.
Moving up
A week after falling out of the rankings, Colgate made a push to get back in as it climbed the ECAC standings.
The Raiders scored three unanswered goals in the second period in a come-from-behind win over Cornell, 4-3. Shae Labbe’s power-play goal, the third of the game for Colgate, midway through the game was the deciding shot. Kaitlin Doering scored twice for the Big Red.
Bailey Larson led all scorers with three assists as the Raiders downed Brown, 6-2. Breanne Wilson-Bennett, Annika Zalewski, Labbe, and Cat Quirion had two-point games.
Megan Sullivan scored the winning goal with 93 seconds left to lift Colgate over Yale, 4-3. She and Zalewski finished with a goal and an assist.
Julia Vandyk earned all three wins to up her record to 9-0-2 on the season.
How the rest of the top 10 fared
Minnesota State extended No. 3 Minnesota to the limit, but the Gophers came away with one-goal wins both days. Kelly Pannek, Dani Cameranesi, and Megan Wolfe all had a goal and an assist as Minnesota built a three-goal lead and won, 3-2, on Saturday, when Anna Keys and Lindsey Coleman scored in a late rally that fell short by the Mavericks. Hannah Davidson’s early goal and 48 saves by Brianna Quade had MSU poised for the upset on Sunday, but Pannek assisted on third-period goals by Lee Stecklein and Wolfe as the Gophers squeezed out a 2-1 win.
No. 5 Clarkson won twice on home ice, starting with a 1-0 defeat of Dartmouth. Shea Tiley’s 22 saves made Loren Gabel’s goal 78 seconds into the game stand up as the winner. Robyn Chemago stopped 41 shots for the Big Green. The Golden Knights scored four unanswered goals over the final 23:03 to top No. 8 Harvard, 5-2. Geneviève Bannon and Rhyen McGill had a goal and an assist for Clarkson.
The Crimson also fell at St. Lawrence, 2-0. Amanda McClure and Hannah Miller scored first-period goals, and Grace Harrison earned her first shutout with 24 saves.
No. 9 North Dakota came home from Minnesota-Duluth with a sweep. The Fighting Hawks won, 2-1, on Friday thanks to goals from Samantha Hanson and Amy Menke and 21 saves from Shelby Amsley-Benzie, who allowed only an extra-attacker goal by Sidney Morin. Gracen Hirschy’s goal in the final minute of overtime gave UND a 4-3 triumph. The Bulldogs, who got 44 saves from Maddie Rooney, rallied behind third-period goals from Morin and Demi Crossman, the latter an extra-attacker effort with 22 seconds left in regulation.
Other action
St. Cloud State traveled to Ohio State and swept the Buckeyes by identical 2-1 verdicts. Katie Fitzgerald made 60 saves in the series, and Julia Tylke scored the winning goal both days.
Syracuse blanked Union, 4-0. Jenn Gilligan made 20 saves, and Alysha Burriss had a goal and an assist.
Laura Bowman scored a minute into overtime in Penn State’s 3-2 win at RIT to salvage a split. The Tigers took the opener, 3-0, keyed by 33 saves from Jetta Rackleff.
Dartmouth and St. Lawrence skated to a 2-2 draw, breaking a 10-game losing streak for the Big Green. Both Chemago and Harrison made 32 saves, and the Saints’ Justine Reyes scored the tying goal at 8:58 of the third period.
Brown and Cornell also tied, 2-2, on Saturday. Monica Elvin made 46 saves and sophomore Cynthia Kyin’s first goal as a Bear gained them the point.
A day earlier, Cornell outlasted Yale, 6-4. The Big Red got off to three-goal lead 14:30 into the game, and the Bulldogs tied it with a three-goal second period. Cornell won when Jess Brown scored twice late to complete her hat trick. Pippy Gerace had a pair of goals for the Big Red.
Rensselaer swept Union, 2-0 and 3-0. Laura Horwood scored in both games and Lovisa Selander was flawless in stopping 61 shots on the weekend.
Boston University and Vermont played to a 3-3 deadlock on Saturday. Taylor Willard’s second goal of the game with 2:22 to go gained the Catamounts a point. Freshman Sammy Davis netted her first hat trick to help the Terriers to a 6-2 win in the rematch. Samantha Sutherland added a goal with two helpers.
Connecticut took three of four points in a home-and-home series with Providence. Christina Putigna’s third-period goal for the Friars answered an early tally from Theresa Knutson in a 1-1 tie. Knutson came back with a natural hat trick to give the Huskies a 5-2 win on Sunday.
