Longer hours on Black Friday
Shoppers are treated to extended store hours on Black Friday, and several teams did their part, as four out of 10 games on the day played beyond regulation.
In the only one of these contents to not reach a decision, Brown fought back from a 2-0 hole to tie Providence on goals by Laurie Jolin and Alena Polenska, the former on a second-period power play and the latter in the final minute with an extra attacker on the ice. Given neither team could break the 2-2 deadlock in the five-minute OT, Brown retained the Mayor’s Cup based on its win in the city rivalry game a year ago.
Yale also stormed back from two down in a semifinal game of the Nutmeg Classic. The Bulldogs completed the comeback at 2:15 of overtime on Kate Martini’s second goal of the game for a 4-3 win over Connecticut.
Jillian Saulnier scored 16 seconds into an overtime power play to allow No. 2 Cornell to survive an upset bid at Dartmouth, 2-1. The Big Green were so taken with bonus hockey that they played 65 minutes on Saturday, settling for a 2-2 tie with Colgate.
The wackiest action of Friday took place in Grand Forks. Josefine Jakobsen scored her first goal of the season in the final two minutes to break a 1-1 deadlock, and then hit an empty net a minute later to give No. 10 North Dakota a seemingly safe 3-1 lead with 47 seconds to go. Minnesota-Duluth’s Shannon Miller called timeout and apparently did some effective scribbling on the whiteboard, because Jamie Kenyon knocked in a ricochet with 13.4 seconds left. The UND defense then vanished with the exception of goaltender Jorid Dagfinrud and allowed a final Bulldogs’ rush into the zone. Dagfinrud poked the puck away from Jamie Kenyon, and threw out a leg pad to stop the puck a second time as it caromed off of Kenyon. However, she could not deny a sliding effort that carried Katie Wilson and the puck into the net just in advance of the horn. The furious rally went for naught when Monique Lamoureux took a drop pass from Allison Parizek, faked, and then snapped a shot by UMD’s Kayla Black for a 4-3 UND win. Lamoureux supplied a hat trick on Saturday as her team completed the sweep with a 5-2 victory devoid of similar tension.
Syracuse triumphs in only CHA play
In the part of the country where I grew up, November means several hunting seasons are in full swing, so one will see a lot of orange. Teams that ventured to Syracuse, N.Y., over the last week saw a lot of that color as well, as the Orange went three-for-three on their home ice. On Tuesday, Shiann Darkangelo came through with an extra-attacker goal while on a five-on-three power play in the final minute versus RIT to force overtime. At 2:45 of that extra session, Julie Knerr potted the game-winner in a 2-1 decision for Syracuse.
The weekend games required far less drama, as the hosts recorded back-to-back triumphs over Rensselaer by 4-0 scores. Kallie Billadeau and Jenesica Drinkwater earned a shutout apiece, while Margot Scharfe and Melissa Piacentini each totaled three goals versus RPI. After dropping its first two contests of the season, Paul Flanagan’s team has now pushed its record to 8-5-1.
St. Cloud State back in the WCHA basement
Bemidji State traveled to Mankato and claimed the Friday half of the weekend series with a 4-3 win on the strength of a Sadie Lundquist power-play goal in the third period. The senior had assists on each of the other BSU goals. The Mavericks regrouped on Saturday with a 4-1 victory, as senior Lauren Smith had a four-point game of her own, including a hat trick.
The points were enough to lift the Beavers above the Huskies in the standings, as SCSU was swept in Madison. The slumbering Badgers’ offense continued to show signs of awakening, dividing a dozen goals evenly between the games. Brianna Decker chalked up seven points.
How the rest of the Top 10 fared
A day after squeaking past Dartmouth, Cornell wasn’t as fortunate at No. 7 Harvard. Kalley Armstrong scored the deciding goal in the Crimson’s 3-1 win while the teams were skating four-on-four, and rookie Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 21 of 22 Big Red shots. Coupled with Harvard’s 4-1 defeat of Colgate on Friday, Harvard joins Clarkson as the only teams with perfect ECAC marks of 6-0-0. Both trail Cornell by two points in the league standings, but with two games in hand.
No. 5 Boston College crashed the Nutmeg Classic party, stifling Quinnipiac, 3-0, behind a pair of goals by Haley Skarupa and a 27-save Corinne Boyles shutout. The Eagles took care of host Yale, 5-0, in the final, with Emily Field leading the offense in support of Boyles, denying any of the Connecticut-based squads their state’s tournament.
No. 8 Ohio State could garner only a split at Princeton. The Buckeyes erased a two-goal deficit with a four-goal final frame on Friday behind Danielle Gagne and Ally Tarr, but were stymied on Saturday by 33 saves from Kimberly Newell and a late goal by Brianna Leahy to yield the Tigers a 2-1 decision.
Meanwhile, it was another week, another record for No. 1 Minnesota. The Gophers swept in New Hampshire by 10-2 and 4-0 scores, upping their streak of consecutive road wins to 15, matching the run by Mercyhurst completed on October 18, 2003. Amanda Kessel had seven points to push her ahead of teammate Hannah Brandt for the nation’s points lead with 45.
