No lead is safe
Of the eight games played on Friday, five teams grabbed multiple-goal leads that didn’t stand up. Brown, St. Cloud State, Providence, and Lindenwood surrendered two-goal leads, while RIT’s three-goal margin didn’t last. No clear trend emerged once the game was tied. The team holding the original lead ultimately won twice and lost twice, while one game ended in a tie.
Fool me once …
On Friday, after Maine erased a two-goal deficit, host Brown scored the final three goals in a 5-2 victory. Kaitlyn Keon had two goals, Sarah Robson added a trio of helpers, and Erin Conway and Kelly Micholson contributed a goal and an assist.
It got worse for the Black Bears on Saturday. They raced to a 3-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old. Monica Elvin came on in relief for Brown at that point and slammed the door, saving all 27 shots that she faced, while her offense went to work. Robson scored in the first period, Keon connected twice in the second period to tie the game, and Sam Donovan potted the game-winner with 88 seconds elapsed in the final period. Robson capped the 5-3 Brown win into an empty net.
Turnabout is fair play
Things looked good for Lindenwood when Jordyn Constance scored from Shara Jasper and Katie Erickson on a second-period power play to put the Lions up, 2-0, in the series opener. Erickson had connected in the first frame with Jasper again helping. However, Rebecca Vint started a Robert Morris comeback with a power-play goal of her own, and Mackenzie Johnston scored in the third period to force overtime. Defenseman Natalie Fraser’s first goal in a Colonials uniform gave RMU a 3-2 victory 2:25 into the extra session.
Saturday’s game was a see-saw affair. The Lions took a lead just 30 seconds into the game, but didn’t get their second goal until 93 seconds into period three. That forged a 2-2 tie that lasted all of 12 seconds before Erin Staniewski put the Colonials back on top. Constance netted her second goal of the game at 13:19 on a power play to force overtime, where Erickson struck to produce a 4-3 win for Lindenwood in a game where it was outshot, 40-24.
The cup runneth over (just not the Four Nations Cup)
Northeastern is left to ponder what No. 1 Boston College will look like at full strength, after the Four-Nations-shortened version dumped the Huskies, 6-1. Yes, Northeastern was down two players for the same reason, but even without five stars, the Eagles unleashed a 46-shot barrage. Kate Leary and Kristyn Capizzano scored twice; Kali Flanagan and Emily Field added three-point games.
BC had its team together intact for its Sunday game and kept rolling with a 4-2 win over Vermont. Leary netted two more goals in a three-goal Eagles’ second-period rally, after Amanda Pelkey had given the Catamounts the lead earlier in the frame on the power play.
Finally!
After years of winless frustration dating back to 2008 in the head-to-head rivalry, Syracuse finally got the best of No. 7 Mercyhurst on Saturday with a come-from-behind, 4-1 win. After assisting on Nicole Renault’s tying goal, Stephanie Grossi scored the winning goal on a third-period power play. Alysha Burriss and Melissa Piacentini added exclamation points into an empty net, and Jenn Gilligan made 28 saves to earn the historic victory.
A day earlier, the Lakers had extended their mastery of Syracuse with a 5-1 win. Emily Janiga’s two points included a goal, her ninth, and Megan Whiddon assisted twice. Amanda Makela handled 28 of 29 chances.
How the rest of the top 10 fared
No. 6 Boston University was the only other ranked team in action. The Terriers took a 4-3 lead on Sarah Lefort’s power-play goal with under four minutes to play, only to have Yale’s Eden Murray tie it at 4-4 with an extra-attacker goal 1:55 later. The Bulldogs’ Courtney Pensavalle led all scorers with two goals and an assist. Each team converted twice on the power play, and the BU special teams added two more tallies while on the kill.
Other action
RIT took a three-goal, first-period lead Friday at Princeton, but was unable to hold it. Ali Pankowski tied the game at 3-3 early in the third period after Fiona McKenna and Hilary Lloyd had started the rally, with Molly Contini assisting on all three and Lloyd getting two helpers. Kelse Koelzer set up Morgan Sly for Princeton’s winner 1:36 into overtime. Freshman Alysia DaSilva made her debut in the Princeton net in relief to start the second stanza and handled all 11 shots she faced to earn the win. No leads were blown on Saturday, because none were taken as RIT and Princeton played to a 0-0 tie. Kimberly Newell made 40 saves, and Jetta Rackleff stopped all 28 shots she faced for RIT. The teams combined for 17 penalties.
After Molly Illikainen and Lauren Hespenheide scored 23 seconds apart for SCSU, Lauren Wash and Ali Svoboda answered for Rensselaer with tallies separated by 1:41 to send the teams to the first intermission deadlocked. Illikainen set up Abby Ness’ short-handed goal at 7:06 of the middle frame, and goaltender Julie Friend made 28 saves to preserve the Huskies’ 3-2 triumph. The Huskies completed the sweep in dominating fashion, outshooting the Engineers, 36-8, and getting goals from Lexi Slattery, Vanessa Spataro, and Illikainen in a 3-0 shutout.
Providence remained winless when it squandered a two-goal lead versus Union. Lexi Romanchuk and Haley Frade made it 2-0 at the 5:44 mark of the second period. Nicole Russell halved the margin 14:31 into the third period, Kathryn Tomaselli tied the game with 100 seconds left in regulation, and the Friars had to settle for a 2-2 tie.
Providence managed to avoid victory once more versus Connecticut on home ice on Sunday. The Friars spotted the Huskies the first goal, but roared back with three straight in the second period. Once the third period got underway, it was UConn’s turn. Emily Snodrass scored on a penalty kill 16 seconds after intermission, and 5:20 later, the Huskies were ahead on goals from Margaret Zimmer and Leah Lum. However, the Friars weren’t done, as Brooke Simpson scored an extra-attacker goal with four seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game, 4-4, and that’s how it ended. Cassidy Carels supplied a goal and two assists for PC.
Penn State allowed the opening tally to Colgate, but then scored five of the next six goals to seize control. Hannah Hoenshell had three points including two goals, and Laura Bowman found the net twice, also, as the Nittany Lions won, 6-4. Some of the storylines were the same on Saturday: Colgate scored early, Bowman had two goals, and PSU won again. Owing to Hannah Ehresmann’s 21 saves, that’s all the offense that was needed, and Sarah Nielsen finished off the 3-1 win into an empty net.
Ohio State jumped out to a two-goal lead 5:47 into its game at Minnesota State, thanks to tallies by Breanne Grant and sophomore Hayley Studler, the first in her career. Julia McKinnon built the Buckeyes’ lead to three before rookie Hannah Davidson’s first goal for the Mavericks provided the final 3-1 verdict. OSU completed the sweep on Saturday, 2-0. Danielle Gagne was the only shooter to beat Brianna Quade, who finished with 36 saves. That was enough, because Stacy Danczak turned away 17 shots and Kendall Curtis added an empty-net goal.
New Hampshire got back in the win column by taking care of Vermont, 5-1. Brittany Zuback scored the first goal of the game for the Catamounts, but momentum turned on Jonna Curtis’ goal in the final seconds before intermission. She had two assists as the Wildcats netted a pair in both of the following periods, and Ashley Wilkes made 21 saves.
Dartmouth defeated St. Lawrence, 5-1, in a non-ECAC game in Rochester, N.Y. Lindsey Allen had a pure hat trick, the final two into an empty net; Robyn Chemago recorded 29 saves.
On Tuesday, Justine Fredette’s first career goal got Connecticut off and running in a 4-2 win over Brown. Four different Huskies scored and 10 collected a point. Kaitlyn Keon scored on a penalty shot for the Bears.
