Women’s hockey loses in 3rd game of quarterfinals

Despite a very successful season in the Ivy League Conference, the Women’s HockeyTeam (22-8-2, 14-6-2 ECAC) lost this past weekend to the St. Lawrence University Saints (17-14-6, 9-8-5ECAC) in the quarterfinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament.

The firstgame was a low-scoring event that ended with a 0-1 loss for the Tigers, to which the teamresponded with a 4-3 win in the second. Their second-game win forced a third game, in whichthe Tigers fought hard but lost in a battle that ended in a score of 3-4.Both the Saints and the Tigers went scoreless in the first two quarters of the first game.The only goal of the game was a bouncing shot from St. Lawrence’s Kirsten Padalis at the10:12 mark of the third quarter. Freshman goaltender Grace Harrison of the Saints also made 29saves, which marked her first career shutout.In the second game of the quarterfinals series, Saints forward Justine Reyes made the first goal of thegame 7:45 into the first period, assisted by seniors Jenna Mar and Kailee Heidersbach. Apotential second shutout then looked possible when Amanda Boulier scored St. Lawrence’ssecond goal with about eight minutes left until halftime. However, Princeton’s freshmandefensemen Stephanie Sucharda responded two minutes later with a goal from the right to cut theTiger’s deficit in half.With 52 seconds left in the half, Orange and Black tied the game off of a power play led by junior defensemen Kelsey Koelzer. She also scored her second shot of the game in the third period in response to a Saints goal to make the game 3-3. Freshman Karlie Lund scored the game-winner exactly four minutes later to give Princeton the win. Princeton senior goaltender Kimberly Newell ended the game with an impressive 33 saves.

The last game of the series made ECAC program history, as it was the Tigers’ first tiebreaker game in a quarterfinal series. The Tigers had a rough start when Koelzer, recently named Ivy League Player of the Year, suffered an injury that prevented her from returning for the next three periods. Orange and Black scored the first goal of the game off an assist from junior forward Morgan Sly to other junior forward Cassidy Tucker. The Saints did not respond until the second period with a goal from Brooke Webster, allowing the Tigers to hold their one-goal advantage for the entire first period. Both teams scored in the second period to make the score 2-2, which remained on the board until the final period. The next goal came from Saints forward Amanda Boulier to give St. Lawrence the 3-2 lead. The Tiger’s response did not come until 15 seconds were left in the game, when junior Molly Contini forced the game into overtime off of a redirected shot from senior forward Jamie McDonnell. The Tigers played with heart in their final minutes of the season, but St. Lawrence got the best of them when Justine Reyes scored her second goal of the series to end the Tigers season.