For just the second time this season, the women’s ice hockey team was able to pound its sticks with pride after concluding their weekend with a win.

Yale (2-2) came out of the weekend 1-1 in two ECAC conference matchups with a loss to St. Lawrence (2-6) and a win against Clarkson (3-2) in their home openers in a newly renovated Ingalls Rink. This weekend’s results put the team tied for fourth place overall in the league.

[ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”11629″ ]

On Friday, the Elis seemed to be in a stalemate early on with the St. Lawrence Saints. In the first period, the Saints attempted a total of 12 shots, eight more than the Bulldogs’ four, but Yale goalkeeper Genny Ladiges ’12 was able to block all of the shots coming at her in the period, resulting in a scoreless game at the end of 20 minutes.

The second period, on the other hand, was much faster-paced. The Elis seemed to be doing better on offense than in the first period, which was largely played on the Bulldogs’ side of the ice. Yale attempted nine shots to St. Lawrence’s seven in the period. The Saints’ Courtney Shawchuck scored the first goal of the game, but Yale forward Aleca Hughes ’12 answered with a goal of her own just 13 seconds later with assists from forwards Bray Ketchum ’11 and Crysti Howser ’09. St. Lawrence then responded with two goals at 6:23 and 4:58. But Yale defender Alyssa Clarke ’10 rapidly fired back with an assist from Ketchum to end the period with St. Lawrence on top 3-2.

The third period, however, was all about the Saints. They were able to put up three unanswered goals to finish the game, resulting in a disappointing 2-6 loss for the Elis in their home opener.

“I think our effort just wasn’t there,” captain and forward Sarah Tittman ’09 said. “We just got away from our game plan.”

She explained that their game plan was “just to try and take it to them.”

“We were going to use our speed to get around them, but our passes just didn’t connect,” Tittman said.

Witt added that the game was a winnable game, and also said that the team effort wasn’t there. She said the one win that the team had was because their squad was better than Union, but in the games the Elis have lost, they have been just as good as their opponents.

“[St. Lawrence] went after loose pucks harder than we did,” Witt said. “It’s going to be a competitive season. Typically, the team that works hardest is going to win. Yale hockey is about work ethic and execution, and we just didn’t do that for 60 minutes today.”

The next day, the team would try to rebound against Clarkson in what would be a closer game than the previous day’s.

Ketchum was able to capitalize on a power play with assists from Howser and defender Helen Resor ’09 10:58 into the first period.

At 18:57 in the second period, Resor added another goal for Yale to put her team on top 2-0. Clarkson made their first goal at 14:11, but Ketchum was able to tack on another score with assists from Hughes and Howser.

With the score at 3-1, it appeared that the Elis were dominating the game, but the Golden Knights kept on fighting. Clarkson scored at 5:51 in the third to put the Golden Knights within one point of tying up the game, and even with 1.8 seconds left in the game, Clarkson did not give up. After winning the faceoff, a Clarkson player launched the puck into the Eli goal, but the referees deemed that time had already run out and the Bulldogs were able to pull away with the victory.

“I think it proved that when we play a full 60 minutes of the game, that we are actually a great team and we can beat anyone,” Resor said. “Clarkson is a great team this year and even though they don’t have a lot of big name players, they play very disciplined.”

She noted that even though St. Lawrence was a favorite last year, their loss of big name players and their head coach has made this year’s ECAC conference much more even.

“This year, Clarkson is a better team than St. Lawrence,” Resor said. “I think we’re a better team [than St. Lawrence] but we didn’t show up that day. Anything can go on any given day.”

The Bulldogs go on the road this weekend to take on Colgate and Cornell.