HANOVER, NH. – Friday night at Harvard, the No. 6 Quinnipiac women’s hockey team scored eight goals to blank the Crimson 8-0. Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth, another eight goals were scored. The Bobcats were victorious, this time by a score of 5-3.
While it was business as usual for the Bobcats with graduate student Logan Angers in net, Big Green graduate student Hann Humphreys was making only her third start of the season.
Humphreys stands out among goaltenders as she doesn’t use the traditional blocker glove combo, instead opting for two blockers.
From the opening faceoff, it was Dartmouth with all the momentum. The Big Green outworked and outshot the Bobcats, proving that you shouldn’t judge a team by its record.
“They have a lot of fight,” Quinnipiac head coach Cass Turner said. “They’re relentless on the puck, they go to the net hard and it just took a few possessions for us to manage that.”
When Quinnipiac got the puck it was a quick burst, as the team found it nearly impossible to hold the offensive zone.
Despite their slow start to the game, it was the Bobcats who got the game’s opening goal. Just past the halfway mark in the first period, graduate student defender and co-captain Kate Reilly fired a shot through a mob of players in front of the net for her eighth goal of the season.
Reilly would finish the game with two goals and two assists, making her the first Bobcat to break the 30-point mark this season, currently at 33.
“She’s jumping into plays and adding to the offense in the right way, which comes with maturity which is awesome to see from her,” Turner said.
Even though Quinnipiac was leading, Dartmouth made sure the Bobcats didn’t gain momentum and pull away. The Big Green were active with their sticks, clogging center ice in search of the equalizer.
In the closing moments of the frame, Humphreys appeared to get injured while trying to cover the puck. The training staff looked at Humphreys — while freshman Eleanor Rogers began to loosen up — but Humphreys would remain in net.
The first four minutes of the second period were spent almost entirely in the Bobcats defensive zone with Dartmouth players peppering Angers with a barrage of shots. However, Angers stood on her head and kept the Big Green off the board.
Seconds after a penalty on Big Green junior forward and co-captain Lauren Messier expired, junior forward and co-alternate captain Laura Fuoco redirected a shot from sophomore forward Cally Dixon. While the shot had Angers beat, fortunately for Bobcats fans, it missed the net.
As time ticked by, the intensity and physicality increased with several post-whistle shoving matches from both teams.
With seven minutes left in the period and the puck on her stick, Bobcats freshman forward Kahlen Lamarche beat Humphreys one-on-one with a toe-drag to make it 2-0.
Just two minutes later, after Angers wasn’t able to control a rebound, it was senior defender and co-alternate captain Annie King along the goal line chipping the puck into the top right corner of the net and getting the Big Green on the board.
“We knew they were going to come back at us,” Turner said. “They tied Princeton 1-1, they beat New Hampshire 5-0. They’re a solid team and with a little puck luck their season could look very different.”
Hoping to carry momentum into the third with just over a minute remaining, sophomore forward Madison Chantler beat Humphreys over the right blocker to make it 3-1 Bobcats.
Quinnipiac had the perfect opportunity to extend its advantage as it began the third period on the power play.
However, after intercepting an errant Bobcats pass, Dixon and Big Green senior forward and co-captain Sophie Robinson had open ice ahead of them and were off to the races. As Dartmouth fans watched in anticipation, Bobcat senior defender and co-alternate captain Kendall Cooper raced back and was able to break up the scoring opportunity.
The period would turn into a back-and-forth battle where neither team could keep sustained offensive zone pressure. But it was Quinnipiac’s Reilly who put her team in the driver’s seat and secured a 4-1 lead with just over five minutes in regulation.
However, following Reilly’s goal, the score went from 4-1 to 4-3 in less than two minutes. As Dartmouth drew within one, Turner used her timeout.
“We’re still not as consistent as we’d like to be but the awareness and effort is there,” Turner said. “We gave up those two goals at the end but we collected ourselves and made sure there were no more dangerous scoring chances.”
With 70 seconds left in the game, Dartmouth coach Liz Keady Norton pulled Humphreys as the Big Green tried to force overtime.
Despite her team’s best efforts, an empty net goal by graduate student forward Jess Schryver sealed the win for the Bobcats.
Quinnipiac will be back in action Jan. 18 at home against No. 5 Colgate. The Raiders currently sit atop ECAC Hockey with an in-conference record of 11-1-0, while the Bobcats sit in third at 10-3-0.
“We’re excited to play them,” Turner said. “I think we’re a lot better than the first time we played them … It’s going to be a good benchmark for us to see where we’re at.”
