HAMDEN, Conn — A new women’s ice hockey season started Saturday as the Quinnipiac Bobcats opened their season against the UConn Huskies in an exhibition game. The Bobcats came back from being down 3-1 to winning it in overtime with a score of 4-3.
In the first period, the Bobcats’ rust was visible. There were multiple times where the hosts had unforced errors, yet these errors didn’t result in anything besides eight shots on net for the Huskies.
“All day, we were working hard to get a little more comfortable with the puck like it definitely was first game jitters, we were antsy we were throwing it away and moments and, and we needed more of an attack mentality,” Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner said.
The second period started with a goalie change for Quinnipiac as freshman goaltender Lucy Phillips took over for graduate student goaltender Logan Angers. The Bobcats changed goalies once again as sophomore goaltender Tatum Blacker took over for Phillips in the third period.
“It’s awesome to get them in the net because it’s one thing to be in practice and then it’s another to have that excitement of a game and to have those jitters,” Turner said. “I think they both kind of settled in a little bit, but they both played like goalies who haven’t played a lot in games yet.”
The second period is where the goals finally happened. After a net-front scrum, UConn senior forward Jada Habisch tucked it past Phillips, giving the visitors the brief 1-0 lead. Four minutes later, the Bobcats tied it with a shot by sophomore forward Madison Chantler – one of her two goals on the day.
The Huskies did get one late to break the tie after a cross-ice pass got deflected in front of the net by Phillips. Sophomore forward Kyla Josifovic put the loose puck away to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead with just 40 seconds left in the second period.
In the third period, UConn went on the power play after graduate student forward Alexa Hoskin was called for a slashing minor with 14:09 left. The Huskies used all of 30 seconds to score on the power play, as graduate student forward Coryn Tormala fired it past Blacker’s glove to increase the lead to two.
The Bobcats started to find their footing later in the period as they rattled off two goals behind Chantler’s second goal and senior defender Maddy Samoskevich, who capitalized on a power play to tie the game up at 3-3 with 2:25 left in the game. Both goals helped complete the comeback and sent the game into an overtime session.
After taking two early penalties in the game, graduate student defender and captain Kate Reilly didn’t shy away from playing her game. The Richmond, British Columbia, native scored the overtime winner after putting home a shot that got past UConn junior goaltender Megan Warrener to win it for the Bobcats.
“I think I’ve had a lot of practice taking a penalty and kind of moving on. I’m just like, okay, the girls did a great job killing it,” Reilly said. “And I try to focus on their success instead of how I felt.”
Quinnipiac is back in action on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. to officially kick off its season in Hamden against Maine.
“So I don’t think it was even a question today whether we thought we could come back,” Reilly said. “We were just ready to go and happy for the privilege to compete.”
