The holiday weekend for head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 and the women’s hockey team featured two disappointing home losses, as the Red feel to No. 5 St. Lawrence, 3-0, on Friday and Clarkson, 5-1, on Saturday night.
The losses dropped the Red’s overall record to 1-10-1, with its league record dropping to 1-7-0 — good for two points total. In both contests, the Red let up first period goals and could not overcome its defecit.
“Our biggest problem has been scoring,” Derraugh said. “In the St. Lawrence game, we played them pretty even in 5-on-5, but [we] gave up two power play goals and we couldn’t score on our chances. With Clarkson, we let up some early and then couldn’t recover.”
[img_assist|nid=20231|title=w hockey|desc=Junior Brittany Forgues (6) and the women’s hockey team were shut out by St. Lawrence last Friday, then lost 5-1 to Clarkson this past Saturday afternoon.|link=popup|align=right|width=100|height=69]
Rookie Jenny Niesluchowski started at goalie against St. Lawrence. Againt Clarkson, senior starting goaltender Beth Baronick was cleared to play after having been out due to the effects of a concussion. But Baronick suffered another concussion and was replaced by Niesluchowski with 17 minutes to go in the contest. Niesluchowski filled in well for the injured starter, stopping all 10 shots she faced, which helped stabilize the the Red’s defense.
“With Beth out, Jenny has done a really nice job for us,” Derraugh said. “I like how our team never gave up in both games, and I think we played our best game of the year against a much disciplined St. Lawrence team.”
The close loss to St. Lawrence demoralized the Red for the following night’s game against Clarkson. Clarkson’s Alison Domenico scored two power-play goals in the first period, applying the early pressure on the Red’s offense. Before the game had time to settle, the Red found itself down and in trouble again.
“We had three or four breakaway opportunities against Clarkson,” Derraugh said. “They are a very tough team to come back on and we could not make up for our mental miscues. We could have just given up, but I like the way our team stayed in the game.”
Derraugh sought underlying positives after a difficult weekend, but recording only one victory so far after an encouraging end of 2005-06 has weighed heavy on the former Cornell hockey star.
“The expectations at the beginning of the year were higher because of our progress at the end of last year,” Derraugh said of this year’s squad. “I think we expected to get a few victories early in the year and we didn’t get them. We have been playing some of our best hockey recently though.”
With two points in the ECACHL, the Red sit in ninth place out of 12 teams in the league.
The only teams behind Derraugh’s crew with zero points include Brown and Union, while Rensselaer remains tied with Cornell at two points.