Manhattanville handed Bowdoin a rare loss on the Dayton Arena ice. The 2-1 win marked the Valiants’ second over a top 10 team this week, following a 7-3 victory over No. 4 Elmira on Tuesday.
Manhattanville (7-2, 5-1 ECAC East) dominated the first five minutes of what proved to be a scoreless period. Cat MacEachern was outstanding in goal for Bowdoin (2-1, 2-0 NESCAC), stopping Jessica Zimmerman on a clean break with less than a minute left in the period.
“We got a lot of chances early on and didn’t capitalize,” Manhattanville Coach Nicole Kirnan said. “We had a total of three breakaways in the first period and four or five two-on-ones.”
Liane Ortis was spectacular in the Valiant net with 34 saves on 35 shots.
“She came up big,” Kirnan said. “The game is dramatically different if a couple of those early ones go in… She played phenomenal, she had literally a perfect game.”
“I’ve personally been in a little bit of a slump,” Ortis said. “It was really good to get out there and have the team behind me and play a solid game.”
Manhattanville opened the scoring early in the second period. Center Amanda Nonis cleanly won a faceoff with the puck going to Alex Blackwell on the boards to her left.
“The other team lined up wrong… left me open on the bad angle shot, and Coach has been telling us all season to take bad angle shots and good things happen,” Blackwell said.
Bowdoin was starting to apply pressure in the third period, but could not beat Ortis. Then Jessica Zimmerman converted an odd man rush for a 2-0 lead, deking to her backhand and beating the goalie with a forehand back high over the shoulder stickside.
“We started off with a good breakout,” Zimmerman said. “Grasby was able to take the defender and give me a good pass in the middle of the ice and I was able to take advantage.”
Bowdoin cut the lead to one on a Meghan Gillis goal with 7:16 left, but Ortis made the lead stand up.
“It’s hard to play a team that’s had that many reps already,” said Bowdoin Coach Michele Amidon. “We accomplished a lot… Now we know what we need to work on coming into the Plattsburgh weekend… It’s very worthwhile playing these games early.”
Bowdoin visits No. 2 Plattsburgh 9-1, 8-0 ECAC West) for its next two games Friday and Saturday.
