We finally got back into the swings of things this past weekend in the D-III Women’s East hockey world, and we got all we could’ve asked for. We saw a tournament featuring three-ranked teams with an upset victory, as well as some spectacular individual performances. We still had many teams on the backburner and won’t begin play until this upcoming weekend, but here’s your recap from a stellar first week out East.
Utica Wins the Utica University Kickoff Tournament
The Utica Pioneers finished last season with a program-best record of 22-3-3, but it seemed like they were missing one thing on their resume, a key ranked win… Last season in their ranked matchups, they fell to #4 Elmira 3-2, #13 Nazareth 2-1, 3-2, and added a pair of ties, one vs #7 Hamilton 2-2, & Nazareth 2-2. They built up an impressive overall record, but failed in the pairwise department due to these signature games and we could only ask, would this be the year they make that leap to the next level?
Well, they did just that. Utica defeated two teams featured in last year’s NCAA tournament in Suffolk University & #6 Adrian College. In game one, Utica led in shots 35-25 and dominated most of the game. Carly Stefanini notched a hat trick and added on an assist as well, while Erica Sloan tallied a trio of assists in the victory. Senior goaltender Angela Hawthorne made 23 saves.
In the championship game vs Adrian, the stat sheet would lead you to believe Adrian won this game by a few goals, but the story here was goaltending. If you saw a team lead in shots 45-15, you’d probably assume the team with exactly triple the shots of the other team won. However, this wasn’t the case. Hawthorne would go on to make 44 saves and keep her team in it on many occasions making save-after-save-after-save.
The Pioneers opened the scoring midway through the 1st period at the 10:13 mark, Hailey Modlin gave her team the 1-0 lead, which would hold up until the earlier half of the 3rd period when Adrian’s Jocelin Hudanish scored unassisted at the 7:05 mark. Then finally, an entire 12 seconds into overtime, Utica’s Carolyn Whitney sniped a top-shelf goal in front of the home Nexus Center crowd to give Utica a signature win that they couldn’t seem to get in past years.
Head Coach Dave Clausen, the only head coach the program has ever had, entering his 22nd season at the helm, had to say this about his team winning two massive games, one against a nationally top ranked opponent:
“I know our team looked forward to this event since it appeared on our schedule. We had a great year last year, only one loss in regulation. Not getting the chance to show the rest of the country how good we were at the end of the year last year has created a lot of drive with our returning players. It was great to start the year with some big wins against ranked opponents. However, the goal is to win games in March. I think our team knows what they’re capable of. We still have a long way to go, but we’re hoping to play a couple more weeks of hockey this year than we did last year.”
Coach Clausen also added some words about his goaltender Angela Hawthorne’s performance: “Angela’s been an outstanding player on our team since arriving here in Utica. We know we were fortunate in the recruiting process to end up with her. She’s a hard worker and seems to rise to the occasion whenever we need her. Her work ethic is second to none.”
I then asked Coach Clausen one last thing and that was being able to host a tournament in the new Utica University Nexus Center: “As far as getting teams to come and play, it was great to attract top teams from the NCHA, CCC and NEHC. To start the season with some great competition really helps get us focused and forces us to learn about ourselves. The Utica University Nexus Center is really the best facility in the country, so getting teams to come play here was rather easy.”
Endicott’s back on track
The Endicott Gulls finished last season with a solid record of 17-8-1 but fell to Suffolk 2-1 in the CCC championship game, knocking them out of NCAA tournament contention. Last year they failed to pick up a ranked win throughout the season but had some ties to build off. Well, this past weekend they shutout #10 Norwich 1-0 & added another 4-0 shutout victory vs Univ. Southern Maine.
A win vs Norwich is a good sign for the Gulls as it’s only expected that Norwich will get better as the weeks go on, losing star player Ann-Frédérique Guay to Maine (NCAA D1) and other seniors was only going to make it difficult to adjust this season. The lone-winning goal was scored early at the 15:14 mark of the 1st period by Endicott’s Maggie Lynch, assisted by Tara Henshaw. Norwich led in shots a slim 26-21, goaltender Casey Moritz gets credited with the shutout victory, while star goaltender Leocadia Clark is credited with the loss, however her play was clearly good enough to give her team a great chance to win the game.
Other Notable East Scores
#14 SUNY Cortland swept Stevenson, winning 12-0 & 8-0.
#12 Elmira fell to #6 Adrian 3-2 in OT.
Oswego State swept William Smith, winning 2-1 in both games.
SUNY Canton swept Trine, winning 6-1 & 2-0.
Curry defeated Johnson & Wales 3-2.
Hilbert won their first-ever game as a program, defeating Kings 6-3.
Wilkes swept MCLA, winning 6-0 & 6-1.
Arcadia swept Albertus Magnus, winning 4-2 & 6-4.
