The women's hockey team pulled off a dramatic two-game split against tough conference opponents over the weekend. After Cornell scored with eight seconds remaining in overtime to steal a 3-2 victory on Friday, Brown rallied the next day to take home a 4-3 win over Colgate. The New York road trip ran the Bears' conference record to 2-4 (2-5-1 overall) and jolted their confidence.
"I think we did pretty well," said Nicole Brown '10. "I feel like we came out a lot better than we have in the weekends past."
The key against Cornell (4-2-1, 2-1-1) was staying out of trouble with the referees. The Bears have been plagued by penalties so far this season, but they took only five in this game, while Cornell was whistled nine times. Extra power play chances led to a 36-32 advantage in shots.
"It seems like this year we've been on a penalty streak, like we get them all the time," Brown said. "It was really important to have a good penalty kill and take advantage of our power plays when we got them."
The Bears were able to do just that. After a scoreless opening period, Bruno took the lead just 2:02 into the second period on a power play. Assistant captain Andrea Hunter '10 collected the rebound of a shot by Jenny Cedorchuk '10 and pushed a shot through a crowd of players in front of the net. But the Big Red answered with a power-play goal of its own 7:48 later to tie the game heading into the third period.
Cornell took its first lead of the game just 1:07 into the third, as Rebecca Johnston scored her second goal of the game, but Brown answered 7:33 later. Hunter capitalized on another rebound for her second power-play goal of the game, this time redirecting a shot by Paige Pyett '12. The score remained 2-2 for the rest of the period, sending the game into a five-minute, sudden death overtime.
Bruno got a power play and produced six shots in the extra frame, but Big Red goalie Kayla Strong stonewalled the Bears. Strong finished with 34 saves to out-duel her Brown counterpart, captain and Herald sports staff writer Nicole Stock '09, who tallied 29. As time ticked away, it appeared that the teams would battle to a draw, but with just over 10 seconds left Karlee Overguard won a faceoff in the neutral zone for Cornell. She skated up, took a shot that Stock saved, grabbed her own rebound and found the back of the net to give the Big Red a 3-2 win.
"That was a heartbreaker," Brown said. "Anything in the last minute of play is really tough, but I guess we came back the next day and showed that we deserved to win."
But the game against Colgate (7-6, 2-2) did not start out well for Brown. The Bears were whistled for four penalties in the first 7:36, and the Raiders took advantage for two power-play goals, sandwiched around a Bruno goal scored by Sasha Van Muyen '10, to take a 2-1 lead just 6:48 into the game.
"It was very unlucky," Brown said of all the penalties. "It kind of brings a team down, but I guess we fought back and showed that we weren't going to be taken out by the refs."
The Bears tied the game with 4:13 left in the first period on a goal by Pyett; Erica Kromm '11 notched the assist. The Raiders retook the lead 8:37 into the second period on an even-strength goal, but Bruno responded with another score on a power play 3:23 before the break. Erin Connors '10 notched her first goal of the season, while assists gave Hunter her fourth point of the weekend and Kromm her second point of the game. Heading into the third period, the game was tied at three goals apiece despite the Bears facing a 28-16 deficit in shots.
But Bruno turned around to control the third period with a 12-7 advantage in shots. Nicole Brown notched the game-winning goal with 9:20 left when she collected the rebound of a shot by Jenna Dancewicz '11 in the slot and found the top right corner of the net. Stock finished with 32 saves to seal Bruno's second victory of the year and break a four-game winless streak against the Raiders.
"It's good to go into the next weekend with a win under our belt, a hard-fought win," Brown said. "We haven't beaten them in a couple years, and Colgate is a pretty good team, so it felt pretty good to come away with the win."
The Bears will look to take the momentum they found this weekend into a pair of non-conference games at Meehan Auditorium. They will host the Niagra Purple Eagles (2-9-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. and the Mercyhurst Lakers (6-4) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
