College Hockey:

This Week in D-III Women’s Hockey: Dec 4, 2008

An Early Statement in the NESCAC

This past weekend while everyone was recovering from the turkey, mashed potatoes and grandmas homemade stuffing, the Amherst Lady Jeffs made an impressive statement against previously tenth ranked Trinity. Amherst shut out the Bantams 3-0 at home at Orr Rink on Saturday night and then followed up the next night with a 3-1 win in Hartford, CT.

On Saturday night, Amherst got off to a quick start when Kate Dennett lit the lamp just under five minutes into the game off an assist from Michelle McGann. That was all Amherst would need as they went on to preserve the shutout backed by Krystyn Eleks 25 saves in net for the Lady Jeffs.

However, Amherst did add two insurance markers both scored by Courtney Hanlon with one coming in the second period and then another in the third period off an assist from Lindsey Harrington to cap the scoring on the night.

Amherst out shot Trinity 33-25 and for the most part had the majority of the games better scoring chances. Trinitys Isabelle Iwachiw stopped 30 shots and dropped her first decision of the season, falling to 2-1-0.

The next night was more of the same as Amherst controlled the play and momentum from the opening whistle. The Lady Jeffs were able to jump onto the scoreboard with a 5 on 3 power play goal from Molly Malloy, a little over six minutes into the opening frame. Kate Dennett added what would end up being the game-winning goal late in the first period with assists from Michelle McGann and CC Wyshnytzky.

Amherst added another goal early in the second period when Emily Vitale lit the lamp 5:46 into the period. Trinity was able to salvage one goal on the weekend when Kim Weiss tallied her third goal of the season. However, thats as close as the Bantams would get as the Lady Jeffs walked out of the Koeppel Community Sports Center with a four-point weekend against one of their chief challengers for the NESCAC crown.

Krystyn Elek once again stood strong between the pipes for Amherst making 27 saves and improving her season record to a perfect 3-0-0. Isabelle Iwachiw was once again saddled with the loss dropping to 2-2 on the year while stopping 36 shots.

Amherst head coach Jim Plumer cited solid team play as one of the biggest factors for the sweep.

Weve been pretty solid in all three aspects of the game, Plumer said. Weve limited other teams scoring chances five on five, Krystyn [Elek] has been great in net, and weve been able to score early in games and be very opportunistic on offense.

Not only has Amherst has been playing solid in all three aspects of the game; their team depth continues to be one of their biggest assets this season.

Its nice when you know proven scorers havent broken out yet, Plumer said. Different kids can contribute on different nights and we havent had to rely on one or two lines.

However, dont be fooled, in my opinion the backbone of this team lies between the pipes in sensational junior goaltender Krystyn Elek.

Shes excellent, Plumer said. When we make mistakes we can count on her. She was able to gain confidence from two big wins this past weekend and when shes on it allows us to play with a lot of confidence in front of her.

Trinity head coach Andrew McPhee pointed to slow starts in both of the games as big factors in the losses.

Both games we started off slow and allowed quick first period goals, McPhee said. We cant allow a team of their quality to do that. We got better and better and the third period was by far our best both nights. We competed hard each night and never gave up.

McPhee didnt believe anything really went wrong per se but he did note that Amherst pounced on second chance goal opportunities all weekend.

Amherst is a very good team with many good players that can hurt you when you make a mistake, McPhee said. Four of their six goals were scored on rebounds. Weve got to work on picking up sticks in front of Isabelle {Iwachiw] and help her out.

Trinity had their chances in both games as they had 11 power plays but were only able to convert on one of them.

We had a lot of shots on the power play, McPhee said. But, Elek is one of the best goalies in the nation for a reason and we couldnt get anything by her. Their defensemen also tied us up a lot better around the net.

McPhee was very complimentary of the Lady Jeffs, especially their defense

Theyre an extremely deep team with no weaknesses, McPhee said. They have the best defense in our league. Julie Radziewicz and Kirsten Dier are going to make it very hard on Jim [Plumer] to nominate someone for all-NESCAC.

Amherst will now face arguably their toughest stretch of the season in their four games as they go on the road for four straight including playing at top-ranked Middlebury on Saturday. Then to start off the second half of the season, the Lady Jeffs will fly out to Minnesota to take on the MIACs best in St. Thomas and Gustvaus Adolphus.

Were excited but were trying not to get to caught up in who were playing, Plumer said. Were trying to control the things we can control like being mentally ready to play well and that gives us confidence especially when weve been playing well from the start of games, which has been an improvement on what weve done in the past.

We need to peak at the end of the season but were excited to play meaningful games. Weve always had a good rivalry with Middlebury and weve had some success playing there. Then well head out west to start off the second half of the season. Itll almost be like a second training camp as were spending the whole week out there and it will be fun to play two more ranked teams and see how we measure up to them.

Trinity will look to move on and improve on their 2-2 record as they head into a two game conference series with Hamilton.

Were looking to get better obviously and well tweak some things, McPhee said. We need to take every game one game at a time as we have a lot of back to back games because of our league schedule.

The Weekend Ahead

Once again this weekend I see three big match-ups that you should pay particular attention to. The first Ive already mentioned with the Amherst traveling to Middlebury on Saturday. Middlebury will be chomping at the bit to get a chance at Amherst after missing out on the highly anticipated NESCAC Championship game last year when the Panthers fell to Colby in the semi-finals.

The Panthers have turned in impressive results so far this season even with a pretty banged up roster. Last years freshman sensation Anna McNally and team leading goal scorer has yet to suit up for Middlebury but the Panthers have still been putting up lots of goals.

Middlebury has seven players with two or more goals already in just five games. Leading the way is senior Annmarie Cellino with three goals and six assists for nine points. Freshmen Maggie Melberg and Grace Waters are off to impressive starts in their young Panther careers with seven and four points respectively.

In goal, Lani Wright and Lexi Bloom have continued to form a terrific tandem for head coach Bill Mandigos Panthers. They have both have goals against averages under 1.50 and save percentages better than .940.

Also in the East, second-ranked Plattsburgh will travel to Aston, PA to take on the upstart Neumann Knights. Neumann is coming off an impressive sweep of Utica, who has a win over Plattsburgh. The ECAC West has been an absolute train wreck so far this season standings wise but we might start to see some separation this weekend with all ten teams in action.

However, this match-up will certainly be the center of attention in the ECAC West. Neu