The women's ice hockey team ended its season in Canton, N.Y., this weekend with a 5-2 loss to St. Lawrence University. The game was the third in Bruno's ECACHL quarterfinal series against the Saints. The Bears won the first game 3-0, but the Saints came back to take the next two games and the series.
"All in all, I think that on any given day they could have beaten us or we could have beaten them," said Head Coach Digit Murphy. "I think that at some point there were some opportunistic momentum shifts for them, and it could easily have gone the other way."
Brown started the series off on the right foot with a decisive 3-0 win. Lindsey Glennon '06 scored two goals for the Bears in the first two periods, followed by a Jessica Link '05 goal in the third. The Brown defense and goalie O'Hara Shipe '08 held off St. Lawrence's forwards to preserve the shutout.
In the second game of the series, the Saints outplayed the Bears to earn a 3-0 win. Chelsea Grills scored twice on Shipe, who was pulled after the second period in favor of Stacy Silverman '08. Silverman made 12 saves in the third period, but Sabrina Harbec got the third score for St. Lawrence to end the game. Brown committed eight penalties in the contest, but its penalty kill held the Saints off for all but one goal.
"In the second game, (St. Lawrence) outworked us," Murphy said. "They came out because their backs were up against a wall, and we just didn't match their energy."
In the third game, the Saints got three goals on the board before Bruno came back with one, with Emilie Bydwell '08 scoring her first goal of the season. Rylee Olewinski '08 had an assist on that goal as well as the Bears' next one, scored by Link.
But two more St. Lawrence goals ensured the end of the series. The Saints will go on to the ECACHL semifinals, and the Bears are done for the season.
2004-2005 was a relatively disappointing season for the Bears. With a 14-13-2 overall record and a first-round exit, the team did not match the success for which it has been known in recent years. However, with two promising first-year goalies and other returning star players, the future looks bright for the next few years.
"(The team) will be good," said co-captain Katie Guay '05, who finished her college career this weekend. "I think they've got a lot of new kids in and they've got a strong group coming back, so they have a lot of potential if they can put it together."
The contributions of rookies Bydwell and Olewinski in the series did not go unnoticed, Murphy said. "One of the bright spots in the weekend was the freshmen," she said. "We put them on a line with Jess Link and they got two of the biggest goals. That was a nice surprise for our team. I threw them out there because it was the third game of the series. Everyone else was getting a little tired."
The five graduating seniors will be a great loss for the team. However, with a strong goaltending base, Bruno will look to climb back to the top of the ECACHL and even the national rankings in the next three years.
- With reporting by Sports Staff Writer Kathy Babcock.
