With under a minute remaining in overtime on Saturday, the women's hockey team was clinging to an improbable 1-1 tie with Princeton. The Tigers were tied for third place in ECAC Hockey, had the benefit of a home crowd and were out-shooting the Bears by a factor of nearly 4-1.
Bruno had been mired in its defensive zone for much of overtime, but the team was finally able to bring the puck down the ice. Nicole Brown '10 took a shot that Princeton goalie Kristen Young saved, but Jenna Dancewicz '11 got the rebound and took a shot that Young was not able to glove, leaving the puck to fall to the ice.
"I hit it again, and it went underneath the goalie," Dancewicz said. "It was awesome."
The goal gave Brown a surprising 2-1 win over Princeton. Coupled with a 3-0 road win over Quinnipiac on their home ice at the TD Banknorth Sports Center the previous night, the win secured the Bears' (5-16-1, 4-11 ECAC Hockey) first four-point weekend of the season.
Captain Nicole Stock '09, a Herald sports staff writer, saved 72 of the 73 shots she faced, while Dancewicz and Brown tallied four points apiece.
"It was really nice to have the kids come together," said Head Coach Digit Murphy. "I felt that there was a lot of team chemistry this weekend. They really were focused, and it was nice to see."
Against Quinnipiac (3-21-4, 2-10-4), Brown roared out of the gate, taking a 1-0 lead just 3:40 into the game on a power-play goal by Nicole Brown.
"It was good for our confidence," Murphy said. "We historically haven't played well in (Quinnipiac's arena), and to get on the scoreboard early ... the kids started to believe in themselves."
The score remained 1-0 for the next 37 minutes, thanks largely to the efforts of Stock and a strong penalty kill that denied the Bobcats on each of their seven power plays. But the Bears came out energized in the third period, and Andrea Hunter '10 gave Bruno a two-goal cushion just 1:08 after intermission.
"We talked about it in the locker room - we need(ed) to put another one in and deflate them a little bit and make sure we didn't just sit on the 1-0 lead, and I think that was really important," Stock said.
Nicole Brown extended the lead with 5:13 remaining in the game on another power-play goal. The Bobcats turned up the intensity, unleashing 14 shots in the period, but could not get past Stock, who turned aside all 30 shots she faced to earn her first shutout of the season.
Bruno faced an entirely different challenge in Princeton, N.J. The Tigers outshot the Bears, 43-12, but were never able to take control of the game. Both Dancewicz and Murphy cited Stock as the key factor in the upset, but they also praised a defense that played better than the stats showed.
"It wasn't only Nicole - our whole defensive corps did a really good job of being patient and composed and putting the puck into smart places," Murphy said. "The kids played with courage. Princeton was definitely a better team. They came at us with everything but the kitchen sink, but it seemed like Stock was able to see mostly everything."
"I have to give a little bit of credit to the team in front of her that allowed her to see it (and) cleared (rebounds) to the corners," Murphy added
Stock echoed that sentiment. "We played good defensive hockey," she said. "It made my job a lot easier."
The Tigers took a 14-2 advantage in shots into the first intermission, but the game remained scoreless after one period. Finally, consecutive Princeton penalties gave Brown a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage 6:25 into the second period, and the Bears took advantage. Eighteen seconds later, Dancewicz found the back of the net to give her team the lead.
"It definitely lightened up our mood," she said. "It's always tough when you're tied, because whoever scores the first goal has the momentum and gets fired up, so it was really good."
But the Tigers kept plugging away. With 10:16 remaining in the game, Princeton finally tied the score when the rebound bounced to unguarded Tiger Katherine Dineen.
Murphy said she was nervous about how her team would react after Princeton tied the game, but she was impressed with the way the young group of defenders buckled down for the stretch run.
Erica Kromm '11, Samantha Stortini '11, Jacquie Pierri '12 and Paige Pyett '12 "really played very gritty and very hard, and that was the story of the game," Murphy said.
Both Stock and Dancewicz said that the players thought they had a good chance of winning the game heading into overtime, but it was the Tigers who took control early in the period. They kept the puck in the Bears' defensive zone for most of the period and took four shots on goal, but Stock made four saves to keep the game going.
Finally, the Bears got the puck out to Princeton's side of the ice and took it to the net.
"Jenna Dancewicz was, at some level, just a rabid dog - she didn't give up on it," Murphy said.
The Bears escaped Baker Rink with a 2-1 win. The four-point weekend pushed the Bears up from four points beneath the Bobcats to a tie for 10th with Quinnipiac. The loss dropped Princeton from a third-place tie to fifth.
The overtime win was Bruno's first in ECAC play since a 3-2 victory over Princeton in the 2004 ECAC Quarterfinals.
"It was nice to finally be the winning team in overtime and not go home dejected," Murphy said.
The Bears will continue their road trip next weekend with rematches against No. 9 Dartmouth (14-6-2, 11-3-2) on Friday and Harvard (10-7-3, 10-4-2) on Saturday.
"We seem to play well on the road, so hopefully we can keep it going in their house," she said.
