Women's ice hockey Head Coach Digit Murphy earned career victories No. 300 and 301 this weekend in league wins - 6-0 over Union College on Friday and a 4-1 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday. Hayley Moore '08 continued her exceptional play with two goals and four assists in the two games, extending her point streak to 14 games.
This weekend's games also saw impressive hockey from Savannah Smith '09, who contributed two goals and two assists on Friday before adding a goal and an assist in the win over Rensselaer. The two wins put Brown at 10-15-2 overall and 6-13-1 in the ECAC Hockey League, capping off a remarkable week for the Bears, which included a 2-1 upset victory over Connecticut on Wednesday.
Brown came into Friday's contest looking for a win over last-place Union, and the Bears dominated throughout. Just 3:04 into the game, Brown went ahead on a shot by Andrea Hunter '10, who finished the game with two goals and two assists. At 18:51, the team capitalized on a power-play opportunity when Smith found the net for the first of her two goals, assisted by Moore and Hunter. With the assist, Moore became the 20th player in the history of Brown women's ice hockey to score 100 career points.
Brown blew the game wide open in the second period, going up 3-0 only 35 seconds in on Moore's backhand goal. At 6:26, Moore found Hunter in the left faceoff circle for Hunter's second goal of the game, and at 18:03, Kathryn Moos '07 took a pass from Lindsay Wilde '09 and scored to give the Bears a 5-0 lead.
In the third period, Smith added another goal, assisted again by Moore and Hunter, for her second consecutive multi-goal game.
"I definitely felt a bit more confident coming into the weekend," Smith said. "It's been nice to be able to contribute more in these past few games, and I hope to continue in our final games next weekend and next season as well."
On Saturday, the Bears continued to excel on both ends of the ice, scoring two goals on a power play in the first period, and never looked back. At 14:45 in the first period, Moore was once again able to set up Smith, and Smith converted for her third power-play goal in two games.
At 3:29 in the second period, Rensselaer's Allysen Weidner sent a bouncing shot past goaltender Nicole Stock '09 to cut Bruno's lead to 2-1, but the Bears added to that lead at 7:01, when Moos scored off a pass from Wilde for the second time in the weekend.
In the third period, Brown went up 4-1 at 2:55, when Sasha van Muyen '10 deflected a pass from Moos into the goal. Bruno's defense was solid following RPI's second-period goal, as Stock finished the game with 30 saves.
It was an impressive week for Brown's defense, including goaltender Stock, who recorded 70 saves while allowing only two goals over this week's three games.
"All last week in practice we really focused on cleaning up our play in the defensive zone and I think that paid off in the games this weekend," said Moore. "Stock has been solid in net for us, coming up big in pressure situations and really just being the backbone of our defense."
Saturday's game was the last home game for Brown seniors Moos, Krystal Strassman, Ann Brophy and captain Lauren Deeb. Following the game, Deeb received the Panda Cup, the oldest award given by the team.
Despite this weekend's league wins, the team's playoff hopes are still very slim. Even if Brown wins its two road games at No. 3 Dartmouth and No. 6 Harvard, the team's playoff hopes would still depend on the outcomes of other games around the league.
But the Bears will try to do their part to control their destiny. "Getting three consecutive wins at this point in the season has given our team a lot of confidence," Moore said. "Right now we know we can do anything, and we are just itching to play our next two games."
To defeat Dartmouth and Harvard, two powerhouse teams, the Bears will look to continue their solid play in the defensive zone.
"As a team we were executing our forecheck very well this weekend so the more time we spent in their D-zone, the less we did in ours," Moore said. Brown must also take advantage of power-play opportunities, as it did this weekend, if the team hopes to pick up two wins next weekend.
Overall, it was an eventful week for Brown women's ice hockey, with Moore's 100th point, Murphy's 300th win and breakthrough games for several underclassmen as Brown bid farewell to its senior leaders.
