Williams Women's Hockey Ties Cadets 1-1
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Eph head coach Marissa O'Neil admitted that while "a tie is never fun," it did give the squad some "much-needed momentum heading into a big conference weekend."
"We played with a sense of urgency for the entire sixty minutes," commended O'Neil, "and it was the kind of effort we need when we play Middlebury this weekend for four big points in the standings.... These past three games we've continued to improve on things we worked out in practice and I thought that was especially true tonight."
Indeed, the Ephwomen were pressing the issue right from the opening faceoff tonight, consistently working the dump-and-chase strategy to great effectiveness in the early going and tilting the rink towards the Norwich defensive zone. The hard work payed off 6:23 into the game, when a pesky Allison Page caused a turnover in the right circle and snapped a wrister over the shoulder of Cadet netminder Cindy Fortin to put Williams ahead. The lone Eph score was the junior defenseman's second of the season, with sophomore winger Kristen Tubbs notching an assist on the play.
The Cadets appeared to ratchet up their gears in response to this strike, pushing the flow of the action into Eph territory. Their hard skating was rewarded at 13:11, as senior forward Sophie Leclerc found a loose puck that had ricocheted off a couple of sticks before finding her blade and the open net to knot the count at 1. It would be the only goal allowed by trusty senior goaltender Sara Plunkett in her 17-save performance.
"Sara gave us some really good goaltending in key moments," affirmed O'Neil. "They are a fast team, aggressive opponent...and they began to push back hard after that first goal. We put them on their heels early, then they had us on our heels....The momentum shifted a lot in this one and I thought we hung strong defensively and maintained our intensity well."
This see-saw trend carried over right into the second period as both teams failed to cash-in on a smattering of chances. An ill-advised own-zone giveaway by Williams led to a 2-on-0 situation in front of Plunkett, but sophomore Julie Fortier mishandled the puck and squandered the moment. The Ephs answered almost immediately with a deflection try on the other end that skipped just wide of the far post.
Soon after, the home team drew the first power-play opportunity of the contest, which turned into a 1:13 two-skater advantage there after. Despite a flurry of quality drives from multiple angles, Fortin bailed the Cadets out of trouble with some challenging stops to keep the score level at 1.
After stifling a Cadet power-play to start the third, Williams drew another man-advantage minutes later but could not get anything going against a timely Norwich penalty kill. In the dwindling minutes of the period, a huge save by Fortin on a wide-open, point-blank attempt from sophomore Eliza Foster at the side of the Norwich net evoked a long sigh from the Williamstown crowd.
In spite of strong, relatively disciplined efforts from both sides, regulation ended with no change to the stalemated tally of the initial frame. And neither crew was able to find the finishing touch in the overtime period, as off-setting penalties and stingy defense resulted in a 1-1 draw.
O'Neil offered further insight as to why she felt her players didn't net the winning score: "Our transition game wasn't as good as it has been the past few games, and Norwich's speed took our pointmen out of the play in several situations. We like to get all five skaters involved on offense but we were forced to do a lot of work from the corner boards.... I think we came close on a couple rebound chances and open looks but just couldn't pit it away."
Williams is looking to bring the same level of competitive spirit to the rink against the no. 6-ranked Panthers Friday, Jan. 22 in Williamstown at the Lansing-Chapman Rink. Game one of this weekend home-away doubleheader is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.
