We had an exciting week of D-III Women’s hockey this past weekend and earlier this week, one team made a run and some other upsets occurred! The second half is officially upon us!
Trinity? Where’ve you been?
The Bantams had a trio of tall tasks in their way this past week, visiting #8 Norwich on Tuesday, then hosting #3 Amherst for a pair of home games over the weekend.
Trinity entered the week 3-3-2, not stellar, not bad considering who they had faced early in the season. Well, this has been Trinity’s past week: 2-0 over #8 Norwich, 4-1 over #3 Amherst, 1-1 vs Amherst, & most recently 3-0 over Plymouth State, giving the Bantams a record of 7-3-2, vastly improved from their 3-3-2 start.
Trinity 2-0 #8 Norwich
It was a low offensive game, shots 21-18 in favor of the Cadets, penalties slim, two for Norwich, one for Trinity.
Both goals in this one came in the middle frame, Ava Gosnell scored the eventual game-winner at the 8:52 mark, while her teammate Anne Levia scored very late in the period at 19:24.9. These goals held up and goaltender Hannah Leclair began her eventual ranked-win streak, making all 21 saves.
Trinity 4-1 #3 Amherst
This series became a lot more interesting once we saw the Bantams shutout Norwich earlier in the week. Amherst goaltender Natalie Stott has been doing her usual, winning games and not allowing hardly any goals, consistently keeping under a 1.00 GAA.
Well, this one was different. Trinity took a 4-0 lead that wasn’t tarnished until a quarter of the way through the 3rd period when Clare O’Connor scored the lone Mammoth goal.
Trinity’s scoring came in flurries near the end, but here’s how it happened:
Ava Gosnell – 14:02 of the 1st period
Martina Exnerova – 6:43 of the 2nd period
Jenny Guider – 2:55 of the 3rd period
Emma Robertson – 3:03 of the 3rd period
Goaltender Hannah Leclair had another statement-performance, making 28 saves on 29 shots from a well-versed Amherst team. The offense deserves a lot of credit in this one, Amherst has been one of the best defensive teams of the past two seasons and didn’t show any signs of weakness until this game vs the Bantams.
Trinity 1-1 #3 Amherst
This was the most-penalized game of the two, both had a lot of time-served, but this one featured four minor penalties for Amherst and seven for Trinity, which I’d argue makes the tie look even more impressive on the Trinity side, killing off that many penalties vs a dominant Amherst team.
Trinity led in shots 22-17, Hannah Leclair had another good game, stopping 16 of 17 shots. Natalie Stott allowed 5 goals on 41 shots on the weekend.
*Trinity added a 3-0 shutout victory over Plymouth State today 1/9/24, improving to 7-3-2.
Head Coach Keith Maurice (that has a nice ring to it), spoke about his team’s performance on Saturday, scoring 4+ on Amherst for only the second time in two years, he said:
“Our team did an excellent job sticking to our game plan, and I feel our game against Norwich really helped us prepare for Amherst. Any time you’re able to put up four goals on a goalie you’re giving yourself a chance to win the game. We knew it was going to be a challenge to score against Amherst, what they’ve done the last two years is impressive. It only speaks to how well coached they are and how well the players execute their game plan.”
Maurice also added when asked about what the team must do to stay more consistent, showing they’ve got great performances such as these in them:
“Every year it’s about finding the identity of our team and I believe our senior class and captains have created the standard that is Trinity hockey. This has been a fun team to coach and I see that in every practice and how we compete against each other and all of that is because of the leaders on the team.”
Oswego breaks the streak!
Oswego State entered this past weekend 5-5-1 vs Plattsburgh, who sat a nice 9-1-1, their only blemishes coming from their rivals in Vermont: Norwich.
Oswego entered this weekend with a horrific record vs the Cardinals, I don’t think anyone would dispute that to put it bluntly, the Cardinals held a record of 46-1-1 vs the Lakers historically…
Well… Friday was different. Oswego, who’s had in my opinion one of the, if not the hardest schedule of anyone thus far as I’ve said many times, considering they began their first 9/11 games on the road, then their welcome home gift is two games vs Plattsburgh…
Oswego jumped out to an early lead, much like earlier this season when they visited the North Country, Sarah Muller scored a quick one, only 1:52 into the game, putting her team up 1-0 early.
Oswego didn’t let up, scoring a pair before the end of the period, it was Ashlyn McGrath at 12:09 & Mack Hull AT 18:51 to give the Lakers a 3-0 lead after the opening frame…
Plattsburgh would score in each of the following periods, but it was too late. Julia Masotta scored midway through the 2nd period at 9:38, while her teammate Ivy Boric trimmed it to one with less than 30 seconds left in the game, but it didn’t complete the comeback.
Oswego wins it 3-2 and Head Coach Mark Digby picks up his signature win at the helm of the Lakers.
Other Notable Games
#7 Hamilton & #11 Colby had a big series this past weekend, both teams split the series, keeping the NESCAC tight as always. Colby, currently sitting at 5th in Pairwise, will be an interesting rest of the way as conference play continues.
#4 Middlebury & #14 Endicott tied 3-3, Middlebury struggling to find wins thus far, maintaining the high ranking and pairwise spot, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares come conference tournament time.
