The women's ice hockey team started off its season this weekend with a road trip to northern New England. In their season opener Friday, the Bears shut out the University of Maine, 3-0. On Sunday afternoon, Brown traveled to Durham, N.H., where, despite a strong effort, the team fell to the University of New Hampshire, 2-1.
The shutout in the Maine game was aided by two of the Bears' three young goaltenders, Marie Desbiens '07, who stopped 11 Maine shots in the first half of the game, and O'Hara Shipe '08, who stopped 12 in the second. Brown was outshot 23-22.
Bruno goals came from familiar sources in three veteran forwards. Krissy McManus '05 put the Bears on the board with a breakaway goal, using a move she had been perfecting in practice last week, at 9:24 of the second period. Amy McLaughlin '05 was credited with the assist.
The other two goals resulted from scrums in front of Maine's goal. Jessica Link '05 scored with nine seconds left to go in the second period; soon after the start of the third period, Kerry Nugent '05 had a power-play goal on which Margaret Ramsay '06 and Ashlee Drover '06 earned assists. Maine goalie Rachel Gettings stopped the 19 remaining Brown shots.
Brown was unable to gain offensive momentum against No. 7 New Hampshire, despite outshooting New Hampshire 34-28. An unusually large number of penalties marked the loss - according to Head Coach Digit Murphy, hockey referees at the college level are making an effort to call games more tightly this year, and it will take some time for teams to get used to the change.
Murphy said Brown's penalties against the Wildcats, which totaled 22 minutes, were part of an unavoidable "learning curve." Both New Hampshire goals came on the power play, in the second and third periods.
Brown goalkeeper Stacy Silverman '08, who had 26 saves in her first full game, echoed Murphy's opinion that the referees were calling a tight game.
The lone Brown goal came during a strong offensive first period, from Katie Guay '05 with assists from Nugent and Hayley Moore '08. Wildcats goalie Melissa Bourdon made 33 saves for the win.
The Brown goaltending situation remains murky, with all three goalies playing this weekend. "It is likely that the three will continue to split time unless one emerges," Murphy said.
"We really do have three excellent goalies," Murphy said. "Silverman was outstanding in the UNH game, but unfortunately we couldn't come up with enough offense. Desbiens and Shipe played excellent against Maine."
"It's a good problem to have," Murphy said, alluding to the Bears' lack of a distinct top goalie.
The Bears' next game is Friday at home against Cornell University.
