After a break for the holidays, hockey is finally back, and we couldn't be more excited! The New Year opened up with some great matchups, including a St. Cloud upset of nationally-ranked Colgate, a Beantown battle between Boston College and Boston University, and strong performances from the likes of Ohio State and Quinnipiac.
Take a look at some of the best stories of the week in NC Women's Ice Hockey.
[divider]UPSET OF THE WEEK
St. Cloud State
After ending 2016 in disappointing fashion with six straight losses, the St. Cloud State Huskies opened the New Year with new energy, shocking seventh-ranked Colgate and pulling out a comeback 7-4 victory.
The game opened with a Colgate score by Megan Sullivan midway through the first. St. Cloud quickly countered with a tally of their own, but the tie was short-lived as Colgate found the back of the net once more before the first intermission.
Trailing 2-1 and facing yet another defeat, the Huskies rallied in the second period with two fast goals.
Leading the charge was forward Hannah Potrykus, who hit the ice for the first time since suffering an injury in mid-November. The sophomore made her presence felt immediately as she tallied a hat trick, the first goal of which coming early in the second to tie the match at 2-2. Potrykus scored again eight minutes later to give her team its first lead of the contest at 3-2.
Shae Labbe, who notched Colgate’s second lamplighter in the first period, found the back of the net again to begin her team’s short-lived rally, in which they grabbed the lead again, only to see the game quickly tied again.
The two teams entered the third period neck and neck at 4-4, but from there, it was all St. Cloud. A change at goaltender helped to spike the comeback as Janine Alder took over for Taylor Crosby and sealed off the net completely.
The Huskies tallied three unanswered goals in the third. In all, five different Huskies found the back of the net, and Potrykus finished the contest with four points after assisting on a late Alyssa Erickson goal.
The netminder tandem of Crosby and Alder finished with a combined 31 saves and four goals allowed.
“There was a sense of urgency tonight that we hadn’t yet seen out of our group,” Huskies head coach Eric Rud told his team’s website. “With so many weekends left, they realized that it is time to go.”
[divider]Defense OF THE WEEK
Boston College, Boston University
It’s always thrilling when longtime rivals Boston College and Boston University get together to play some hockey, and the contest to open up 2017 for both teams was no different.
This was a defensive showdown from the beginning with BU’s Victoria Hanson facing off against BC’s Katie Burt, and neither goaltender disappointed.
Through the first period, both teams were held scoreless, though there were some great chances, none greater than Eagles forward Kristyn Capizzano’s breakaway attempt. Hanson shut it down, making 10 saves through the first 20 minutes. On the other end of the ice, Burt kept the Terriers off the board as well, tallying seven saves.
In the second, BU finally opened scoring with a power-play goal close to the midway point. Nina Rodgers got the tally, with assists by Abby Cook and Deziray De Sousa. Burt made 13 stops in the second, and allowed just one goal, while Hanson remained perfect despite facing 13 shots of her own.
Capizzano got another chance in the third, and this time converted on a power-play goal, assisted by Caitrin Lonergan and Grace Bizal, earning her fourteenth goal of the season. With the game all tied up, both goaltenders continued to refuse anything that came near them.
By the end of regulation, Burt had 28 saves while Hanson’s total was 36.
In overtime, Hanson doubled down, turning aside all nine shots that she faced, while her team failed to get a single shot on goal against Burt and her Eagles. By the end of the extra time, the score stayed all knotted up at 1-1.
[divider]Offense OF THE WEEK
Ohio State
WATCH: Sam Bouley puts Ohio State up 1-0 with this nifty backhanded goal in the 2nd period #GoBuckshttps://t.co/2wHSvPAudr
— Ohio State W Hockey (@OhioState_WHKY) January 7, 2017
In their first games since dropping two in a row to Wisconsin midway through December, Ohio State came out swinging, shutting out Penn State in back-to-back, high-scoring contests.
After Friday’s 5-0 shellacking, the Buckeyes started their second matchup against the Nittany Lions more slowly, with the scoreboard remaining tied at 0-0 through the entire first, and almost halfway through the second.
Ohio State finally found the back of the net almost eight minutes into the period, with Samantha Bouley tallying her fifth of the season. The goal went down as the eventual game-winner.
From there, five more Buckeyes found the back of the net. Maddy Field, who leads the team in scoring with eight goals and 15 points on the season, had the second lamplighter for her team to close out the second period, on top 2-0.
In the third, scoring opened up. Dani Sadek notched her second goal of the season on a power-play attempt less than five minutes into the final period. Breanne Grant found the net for the first time this season in this matchup, lifting her team to a 5-0 lead before Jincy Dunne tallied the final goal with less than a minute left.
Buckeyes goaltender Kassidy Sauve made 26 saves to ensure the shutout, including a 12-save final period.
[divider]GAME OF THE WEEK
Quinnipiac vs. Dartmouth
Eighth-ranked Quinnipiac picked up their first win of 2017 against Dartmouth, unleashing an offensive torrent to help ensure the victory.
The Bobcats kept the pressure on from the start, recording eight shots on goal in the first while tallying the first of the game just past the midway point of the opening period. Randi Marcon had the lamplighter, her fourth of the season.
In the second, Quinnipiac doubled-down, this time pestering Dartmouth goaltender Robyn Chemago with 24 shots through the period. Despite Chemago’s best efforts, she allowed another goal, this time to Taryn Baumgardt, just over a minute before second intermission.
Dartmouth finally got on the board in the third as Kennedy Ottenbreit converted a power-play opportunity, but with her team already down 3-1, it was too little, too late for a comeback attempt.
Chemago made 40 saves in the loss, allowing just three goals despite the fervency with which the Bobcats drove to the net.
Quinnipiac’s goaltender Sydney Rossman had a quiet outing in comparison, facing just 13 shots and allowing a single goal with her team already up by three.
