The women’s hockey team notched its second win of the season this weekend, as it split with Maine in Orono. The Red (2-14-1, 0-7-1 ECAC) dropped Friday’s contest 2-1 in overtime, as Maine scored the game-tying goal with 14 seconds left. The Black Bears (7-11-4, 1-5-2 Hockey East) gave up the lead on Saturday, as the icers lit the lamp with 14 seconds left in the game, and came away with the 3-2 win in the extra frame.
“I thought we had a good growing weekend. The first game, we had a lot of chances to put them away, but we didn’t early, and they came back and capitalized late in the game, and then took the game from us in overtime,” commented head coach Melody Davidson.
Senior Sanya Sandahl started in goal for the Red, and held Maine scoreless until the last seconds of the game. Senior Lindsay Murao had a great scoring opportunity in the first on a 2-on-1, but hit the crossbar on an open shot.
Sandahl made a huge play on a breakaway to keep the game scoreless early in the second. With the Red making a line change, Meagan Aarts came in all alone, but Sandahl stoned her by making a pad save.
Midway through the second, senior Brooke Bestwick took a shot from the left point, which freshman Caitlin Warren deflected past Dawn Froats to put the Red up 1-0. Bestwick nearly added another tally for Cornell in the waning moments of the second stanza, but was denied by Froats.
The Black Bears took a penalty with 2:35 to go in the game, and pulled Froats immediately after the power play ended to bring out the extra attacker. Nicole Munro hit the back of the net after collecting a rebound to send the game to overtime.
Cindy Biron collected a Karen Droog rebound with almost a minute gone by in overtime, and put it past Sandahl to seal the win for Maine. Sandahl and Froats each finished with 26 saves.
On Saturday, Sandahl started again for the Red, while Lara Smart was in net for the Black Bears. Maine wasted no time getting on the board, as Jarin Sjogren collected a pass in front of the net and put it through Sandahl’s five hole at 5:55 in the first.
“We were mentally and physically tired during the second game. Obviously when you lose a game like we lost, it’s hard to refocus,” remarked Davidson.
The Red would answer on the power play with five minutes left in the third, as Bestwick fed the puck to Murao at the side of the net, who one-timed it into the high left corner for her first goal of the season.
Maine dominated the second stanza, limiting the Red to four shots. Rebecca Culver beat Sandahl low on a wraparound shot at 15:30 to give the Black Bears the lead again.
The score would remain 2-1 until Sandahl was pulled with 30 seconds to go in the third, and sophomore Pearle Nerenberg was able to find the back of the net for her first goal of the season to send the game to overtime for a second straight night.
“We worked a lot on faceoffs over the year, and being able to execute one and feel success off of it was big. In the overtime, we kept going at them and looking for stretch passes,” commented Davidson.
Bestwick threaded a great pass from her own blue line to freshman Jen Munhofen, who beat the Maine defenders and came in all alone on a breakaway. She beat Smart on the left side to give the Red the victory.
Sandahl notched her first win of the season with a 30-save effort, while Smart stopped 26 for Maine.
“Sanya really stepped it up this weekend. She played a solid game for us the first night, and earned the back-to-back starts. The decision wasn’t made ahead of time, so she earned that extra start and stepped up again the second night,” said Davidson.
Bestwick had a standout weekend, assisting on all three goals in Saturday’s game, and adding another helper on Friday.
“Brooke’s always there for us, solid all the time regardless of whether she’s on the point sheet or not. I think she was connecting, making some smart decisions with the puck,” said Davidson. “Friday night she iced the puck in a situation where she knew she shouldn’t have iced it, but it was nice to see her step up the second game, and be able to contribute offensively like she was and turn things around for us.”
The Red will return home this weekend for a two-game set against Ivy foes Princeton and Yale on Saturday and Sunday afternoon at Lynah Rink.
Archived article by Jonathan Auerbach