W. Icers Fall to Ivy League Foes

Losses are always hard to take, especially when one comes against an opponent that you beat earlier in the season. Such was the case for the women’s hockey team (2-18-1, 2-12-0 ECACHL), which lost two games this weekend to league foes Yale and Brown.
On Friday night, Yale beat the Red by a score of 5-1. On Saturday afternoon, Brown shut out the women 3-0, the seventh-straight loss for the Red.
“It is possibly a lack of focus. It has been a hard season and we are all looking for answers,” senior captain Caroline Scott said. “I don’t know the reason for our struggles; if I did, we would be improving.”
Yale (11-8-1, 7-7-1) was paced by sophomore forward Crysti Howser, senior forward Sheila Zingler and classmate Jenna Spring, who combined for 10 total points. Howser and Zingler each had two goals and an assist on the day, while Spring added four assists. Yale junior goalie Shivon Zilis stopped 19 shots and Niesluchowski blocked 29.
Howser scored four minutes into the game when she snuck the puck past Cornell freshman goalie Jenny Niesluchowski. Cornell evened the score two minutes later, however, when junior forward Brittany Forgues knocked in a rebound off of a shot by classmate Brianne Schmidt. Cornell was not able to generate much offense after that though.
In the second period, Zingler scored two goals and Howser netted her second goal of the game to extend Yale’s lead to 4-1. In the third, freshman forward Caroline Murphy narrowly missed her first career goal when an apparent tally was waived off for a Yale player being in the crease. Just 15 seconds later, Murphy scored for real off a pass from senior defenseman Nina Resor.
“I thought that we really came out and played well at the start of the first period,” head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 said. “In the second period, we didn’t come out with that same energy and that cost us. We also made some mental breakdowns in the defensive zone and they took advantage of it.”
On Saturday, sophomore goalie Nicole Stock was the star of the game for Brown (6-13-2, 4-11-1). Stock stopped 21 shots to record her second shutout in the last five games. The Bears scored first with a minute and a half left in the first period when freshman forward Erin Connors scored her fifth goal of the season past Cornell senior goalie Beth Baronick.
After a scoreless second period, Brown scored its second goal halfway through the third when sophomore forward Savannah Smith put home a rebound off a shot by junior forward Emilie Bydwell. After the Red pulled Baronick late in the third period, the Bears scored their third goal on an empty-netter by junior forward Hayley Moore. Baronick stopped 33 shots in the losing effort.
“On Saturday, we played a more complete game,” Derraugh said. “We played well and the effort was there throughout; we just sputtered in trying to score goals. We had some good chances though. We had a breakaway on our second shift and we had a couple good rebound chances, but they scored at the end of the first period and it was an uphill battle from there.”
In what has become a trend for the Red this season, the team could not score in nine power play chances over the two games. On a positive note, the team did not allow a power play goal in 11 attempts over the weekend.
“Our power play has been sputtering,” Derraugh said. “I think we need to drive the net more and we need to shoot more. We are passing up better options to go to the net. We need to focus more on that than just being happy with getting in the offensive zone.”