The women's hockey team came away with a thrilling win Wednesday, emerging with a 2-1 overtime victory over the University of Connecticut. Savannah Smith '09 scored both goals for the Bears, while Hayley Moore '08 and Andrea Hunter '10 picked up the assists on both goals. The win puts the team's record at 7-15-2 overall and 4-13-1 in the ECAC Hockey League.
The Bears fell behind just one minute into the second period when a shot from UConn's Brianna Uliasz went past Brown goaltender Nicole Stock '09, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead. From that point on, Stock shone. She made 25 saves in the game and allowed only that lone puck to sneak past her.
Brown struck back just six minutes later in the period when Smith secured a rebound off a shot by Hunter and took advantage of an open net to tie the score at 1-1.
"We knew if we just kept pressuring them and shooting, the goals would come," Smith said. "We just had to focus on making fewer mistakes in our own zone and capitalizing on our opportunities."
After a scoreless third period, the game went into extra time. Bruno were awarded a golden opportunity 57 seconds into the bonus period. The Bears went on the power play after the Huskies' Amy Hollstein was penalized for interference.
In last weekend's games the Bears were plagued by their inability to convert during power-play opportunities, but Wednesday night this was not the case. Hunter controlled a rebound off of Moore's blocked shot and found Smith to set up the game-winning goal 1:51 into the overtime period.
Smith entered Wednesday's game with only four goals this season, so her two goals came as something of a welcome surprise. "I think the opportunities just came my way tonight," she said. "It seemed like my linemates did all the work, and the puck just happened to fall on my stick twice with a wide open net."
"We have been waiting for Savannah to have a breakout game like this," said Head Coach Digit Murphy. "Hopefully this is the first of many great games for her."
With her two assists, Moore extended her point streak to 12 games, and she now has 18 goals and 12 assists on the season. Hunter has had a remarkable season as well, amassing seven goals and a team-high 18 assists in her freshman campaign.
The win was a major improvement over last weekend's losses against Princeton and Quinnipiac University when the Bears were plagued by defensive lapses and a failure to convert on power-play chances. Both were Brown's strongest areas of play on Wednesday.
"We saw better team defense and quicker decision-making from our players tonight," Murphy said. "We also stayed out of the penalty box, which allowed us to use our depth to our advantage."
Moore added, "It wasn't a matter of playing a flawless game, but when we did make mistakes we didn't get down on ourselves, and we kept fighting back."
The win also carried some extra significance for Murphy. The win moved her one victory away from becoming the third coach in collegiate women's ice hockey history with 300 wins.
The win had playoff implications as well. Brown currently trails Clarkson University by seven points for the eighth and final spot in the ECACHL playoffs with four games to play.
"We have an outside shot, but we will need help from other teams in the league to get the eighth spot," Murphy said. "Our team was unable to execute in some key games early on and needed to learn the lesson that things don't always work out if you don't play your best."
Nonetheless, the Bears will attempt to make a strong showing in their remaining games. This weekend the Bears will return to College Hill for two must-win games. On Friday, Brown plays Union College - 0-14 in the ECACHL - and then will face a stiffer challenge when they play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday.
"Whether or not we get a playoff spot really isn't up to us," Moore said, "but we will do everything we can from here on out to control our destiny."
