The women’s hockey team experienced two tough losses to open the season this weekend. The Red first dropped a 5-0 loss to Brown on Saturday, then followed it up with a 3-0 loss to Harvard on yesterday at Lynah Rink.
In the season opener against Brown, the Bears put up four second period goals to roll to an easy shutout victory over the Red. At 4:01 of the second period, Bears freshman Katie Guay started the scoring on assists from sophomore Kelly Sheridan and junior Courtney Johnson.
“We’re disappointed in the outcome and we’re disappointed in the way we played. We just didn’t execute,” head coach Carol Mullins, noting the team felt confident heading into the weekend slate.
At 8:52 of the same period, freshman Jessica Link scored on a Brown power play, putting the second Bears goal past sophomore Cornell goalie Liz Connelly. Brown converted its following power play when yet another freshman, this time Amy McLaughlin, scored to give the Bears a 4-0 lead heading into the second intermission.
Mullins attributed poor fundamentals to the team’s demise.
“There are some things we have to work on. We weren’t skating hard or taking care of the puck,” she said.
The Bears would add a final goal at 8:17 in the third period to cap the scoring for the contest. On a side note, there seemed to be a large faction of Brown fans cheering from, of all places, section B at Lynah on Saturday.
In the Harvard loss, the Red fell behind early. Freshman Ali Crum tallied the first Crimson goal at 3:22 in the first period on the penalty kill. The shorthanded goal was unassisted.
At 12:27 into the first period, the Crimson went on its first power play when the Red was caught for having too many players on the ice. Harvard took advantage of the opportunity a little more than a minute later when junior Kalen Ingram assisted freshman Nicole Corriero, who slid the puck past Cornell sophomore goalie Sanya Snadahl for the second goal of the game.
The Crimson capped the scoring with a third goal at 14:14 on a power play when junior Tracy Catlin tapped in a rebound of her own initial shot.
Sophomore goalie Jessica Ruddock had 20 saves for the Crimson to earn the shutout, while Sandahl made 31 saves.
Mullins concluded by noting that the weekend provided a benchmark for the team to gauge how much improvement it needed to make.
“Our eyes are open by what it is going to take to get better.”
Archived article by Matt Nassr