HAMDEN, Conn — The No. 8 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team had a rough first period in its 5-1 win against Maine.
It went down a goal, struggled in front of the crease and had graduate student forward Alexa Hoskin leave the game following a rough lower leg injury. But the Bobcats stayed gritty, punching back with five unanswered goals and sweeping the weekend series against the Maine Black Bears.
“(Maine is) a team that’s going to compete incredibly hard and we want to play games like that so we can figure out what we’re made of,” head coach Cass Turner said.
In the first half of the first period, play was stagnant. Besides a few accurate passes off senior defender Kendall Cooper’s stick to stretch the ice, the Bobcats and the Black Bears were at a deadlock.
The ice heated up following a five-minute major boarding penalty assessed to Quinnipiac junior forward Maya Labad.
The Bobcats went on the penalty kill and did what they have done on the PK in the past: succeeded. They held Maine to zero shots during its first-period power play.
“The penalty kill is something that we practice a lot,” graduate student goaltender Logan Angers said. “It was huge that we kept moving the puck down the ice and didn’t really allow them many opportunities.”
With seven minutes to go in the period, Hoskin suffered the aforementioned injury and was carried off the ice.
With just over three minutes left in the first period, Maine freshman forward Lily Fetch slipped a pass from sophomore winger Ava Stevenson past Angers’ left leg pad for her first goal of her NCAA career and Maine’s first of this season. 1-0 Black Bears.
Quinnipiac dominated shots on goal throughout the first period, outshooting Maine 14-6. And when you keep shooting, good things tend to happen.
In the second period, senior defender Maddy Samoskevich wristed a shot that deflected off Maine freshman goaltender Julia Bachetti’s right leg pad, onto Labad’s stick, and into twine for the equalizer.
During the entire game but especially in the second period, Angers shined, maintaining her composure despite the 29 Black Bear shots on net and the early one-goal deficit. She made a crucial one-on-one save with 5:33 to go in the second to prevent senior forward Rahel Nezler from finding the back of the net.
“Logan is so solid,” Turner said. “She’s calm in the net … she’s the type of goalie that we can win a championship with.”
With around seven minutes to go in the second period, the Bobcats clawed another goal out. This time freshman forward Kahlen Lamarche scooted a pass to graduate student forward Jess Schryver who aided the puck through Bachetti’s five hole and gave Quinnipiac the 2-1 lead.
Lamarche earned her first career collegiate points on the play.
Going into the third period, the Bobcats had the momentum on their side. They kept chugging along and for the second straight day, Quinnipiac scored a wrister from the right dot. Senior forward Nina Steigauf rifled a shot past Bachetti on a three-on-one to make the game 3-1.
The goals didn’t stop there.
The newcomers continued to make an impact, with sophomore forward Emerson Jarvis whistling a shot into the back of the net from graduate student forward Julia Nearis’ pass. The transfer tandem gave the Bobcats a 4-1 lead.
“It says a lot about the girls that we are coming into and how well they’ve taken us in as their own,” Jarvis said. “We’ve been figuring it out as we go.”
Following a rebound off of Bachetti, Cooper rocketed the puck off the frame and past the line for her second goal of the season and the fifth and final goal of the day for the Bobcats, winning this one 5-1.
The Bobcats will next travel to Hanover for a two-game bout at the University of New Hampshire next weekend. The Friday game starts at 6 p.m. and the Saturday contest begins at 2 p.m.
