The women’s ice hockey team split a weekend doubleheader against Ivy League rival Yale (9-11-1, 6-8-0 ECAC), claiming its first victory in 10 games and keeping itself out of last place in the conference for another week. It was an emotional roller coaster this weekend for the Bears (5-16-0, 2-12-0), who found themselves behind during portions of each game.
“I thought our team showed a lot of fight,” said goaltender Monica Elvin ’17. “We battled back from being down.”
Brown 3, Yale 2 (OT)
The Bears claimed a victory in an overtime thriller Friday night in Meehan Auditorium thanks to an outstanding performance in net by Elvin and a game-winning goal by Janice Yang ’15.5. Elvin amassed an astonishing 47 saves, besting her career high of 39, which she set just a few weeks ago. She blanked the Bulldogs in the first period with 20 saves and continued her resolute defense in net in the second period with 18 more, including a penalty-shot save.
Elvin’s “performance in that game was exceptional,” said Head Coach Amy Bourbeau. “It was great to see her carry the team and give them the confidence they needed to get the win.”
“She carried us through two periods of play,” Bourbeau added. “The more pucks she stopped, the harder we played.”
Sam Donovan ’18 netted the game’s first goal — her eighth of the year — in the second period, following a scoreless first. The Bulldogs responded with two goals of their own, giving them a slim one-goal advantage by the second intermission. The Bears fought back, and on a 5-on-3 power play, Maddie Woo ’17 slapped a one-timer past the goalie for her fifth goal of the year, tying the game 2-2.
Yang finished the game off less than a minute into overtime, burying the loose puck into the net for her third and most important goal of the season.
Elvin retained a humble attitude about her performance on the night, giving a lot of credit for the triumph to her teammates. “My teammates in front of me were blocking a ton of shots as well and giving everything they had, so I wanted to do the same for them,” she said.
Yale 6, Brown 3
The next day, Bruno failed to recreate the magic of its victory, this time falling to the Bulldogs by a tally of 6-3. The Elis exploded for a high-scoring first period, resulting in five goals and prompting a goalie change by the Bears. Yale scored four of these tallies in a three-minute span in the first period, and never looked back.
For the Bears, Yang scored yet another goal for her fourth of the season and Sarah Robson ’15 contributed another. Assistant captain Kaitlyn Keon ’15 also scored for her team-leading ninth of the season. Despite a 2-of-5 success rate on the power play and an impressive performance by Julianne Landry ’18 — who saved 25 of 26 shots after coming on for Elvin — the Bears could not overcome the Bulldogs’ hot start. Bruno managed only 12 shots on target — less than half of the total it accumulated the previous night.
“Our team never quit, but we were in too much of a hole from early on,” Bourbeau said.
Brown hopes to pick up some more important conference victories next weekend, when it will travel to St. Lawrence (14-8-3, 8-3-2) and Clarkson (15-7-2, 9-2-2) for another back-to-back set.
