{"id":3305,"date":"2002-03-08T10:26:04","date_gmt":"2002-03-08T16:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2002\/03\/08\/elmira-outguns-gustavus-to-reach-championship-game\/"},"modified":"2010-08-23T11:54:41","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T16:54:41","slug":"elmira-outguns-gustavus-to-reach-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/2002\/03\/08\/elmira-outguns-gustavus-to-reach-championship-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Elmira Outguns Gustavus To Reach Championship Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second semifinal of the Division III Women’s Frozen Four was very unlike the first.<\/p>\n

The early contest was a goaltending battle, a low-scoring affair. The second game, pitting ECAC West champion Elmira and MIAC regular-season champ Gustavus Adolphus, was an offensive explosion in which Elmira finally came out with an 8-5 victory.<\/p>\n

“You don’t always want to be in that kind of game,” Elmira coach Jamie Wood said. “But it’s good that we came out on top.”<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n
Laura Hurd centers a pass (photos: Russell Jaslow).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Leading the way for the Soaring Eagles was freshman sensation Laura Hurd with a hat trick, along with one assist. Hurd’s goals gave Elmira a cushion it would never relinquish.<\/p>\n

Elmira came out as if it had a point to prove. Said Michelle Rennie, “I honestly don’t remember the first period. We were so pumped. You couldn’t bring our team down.”<\/p>\n

Hurd got the scoring started just 1:08 into the game with a two-on-one rush. Lindsay Palmer passed it to Hurd on her right side, and Hurd ripped it back to the opposite side.<\/p>\n

Gustavus came back just 49 seconds later on a goal by Ann Katz, but Elmira jumped back out to a 3-1 lead on goals by Rennie, one of only two non-freshmen on the team, and Charissa Gawant.<\/p>\n

Gustavus made it 3-2 at the end of the period when Kenzie Stensland scored the first of her three goals for the night, on a shot from the point through a screen.<\/p>\n

Then the Hurd Show began.<\/p>\n

“I thought Laura played one heck of a game,” gushed Wood. “She was flying and ready to go.”<\/p>\n

Hurd scored twice in a second period that gave Elmira a 5-2 lead. At that point, Gustavus called time out, and replaced starting goalie Molly O’Donnell with Anne Kautzer.<\/p>\n

It was also at that point that the seniors on Gustavus refused to give up. The Gusties continued to come back no matter how many times their goals were matched.<\/p>\n

The third period saw six goals; each time Gustavus cut the lead to two, only to have Elmira go back up by three.<\/p>\n

“After getting off to a sluggish start,” Gustavus coach Mike Carroll said, “in the second half, I felt we really took it to them. I’m proud of our team. We didn’t give up. That was the most puck-smart team we’ve played this year.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
The Soaring Eagles pounce on a loose puck.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Besides the hat tricks of Hurd and Stensland, Katz scored two goals and Palmer got a goal and four assists.<\/p>\n

The result sets up a rematch between Elmira and Manhattanville, which played earlier this year in a 3-0 win for Elmira.<\/p>\n

That was the regular season. This is the national championship.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a battle tomorrow, but we’re ready,” coach Wood said. “At this point, you throw out the previous results. Tomorrow will be a different game.”<\/p>\n

“It’s a great chance for our players who have worked hard all year.”<\/p>\n

And Hurd understands the chance. “At the start of the season, you always hope for this, but you don’t exactly expect it.”<\/p>\n

Playing in front of a strong crowd of 1,854 was also special for Hurd, who said, “[It’s] always fun to be in front of a home crowd.”<\/p>\n

Saturday very well could see a capacity crowd as Elmira looks to win its first-ever hockey national championship, men or women.<\/p>\n

Wood said, “That’s why you play sports. For stuff like this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second semifinal of the Division III Women’s Frozen Four was very unlike the first. The early contest was a goaltending battle, a low-scoring affair. The second game, pitting ECAC West champion Elmira and MIAC regular-season champ Gustavus Adolphus, was an offensive explosion in which Elmira finally came out with an 8-5 victory. “You don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}