February 9, 2004

W. Hockey Loses Twice

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Many people say that there are no moral victories in sports — either you win or you lose. But if ever there was a case for a moral victory, it would have been Friday night as the women’s hockey team dropped a close matchup with Brown, 4-2.

“We aren’t satisfied with not winning,” said senior captain Briana Jentner, “but we know that we put in a valiant effort.”

The Bears (12-5-2, 8-1-1), who are one of the ECAC’s elite squads came out on fire against the Red, building a 3-0 lead with over 13 minutes remaining in the second period. Yet the Red, who lost an earlier contest to Brown by a score of 8-1, didn’t pack it in.

The team fought back when the Bears were most vulnerable — on the power play.

“It was just putting the little pieces together,” said Jentner about power play situations.

All those pieces came together for the Red, which came into the contest struggling in power play situations recently. Friday the Red was a solid 2-for-5 with an extra skater. The first power play goal came from sophomore forward Andrea Skinner on a wraparound goal with an assist from classmate Vicki Hodgkinson. The second power play goal, a hard slap shot by senior assistant captain Ali Simpson, came in the final frame to bring the Red within a goal of the Bears. Assisting on the play were sophomore forwards Jen Munhofen and Caitlin Warren. With the assist, Munhofen increased her team-leading assists tally to 11, and her total points to 16 on the season.

Brown added an empty net goal to make the score 4-2.

In net for the rest of the game for the Red was Flora Vineberg, whose solid play in net kept the Red in the game. Vineberg made 23 saves on the evening, including one on penalty shot midway through the first period.

Vineberg made 44 saves the next night against Harvard. Unfortunately for the Red, she faced 50 shots in all, and the Crimson left Lynah with a 6-0 shutout. Harvard, which is currently ranked third in the country, kept the heat on the Red all game long offensively and defensively. The Crimson defense stifled the Red, holding the team to just three shots in both the first and second periods. Then Harvard turned on the offense in the final frame to tack on three more scores.

The two losses dropped Cornell to just 1-11-0 in the ECAC, and 4-15-1 overall, going into a road weekend in which it will face Princeton and Yale for the second time this season.

Archived article by Chris Mascaro