For the second weekend in a row, the women’s hockey team could not stay out of the penalty box, resulting in its third and fourth losses of the season.

The Bulldogs (0-2-0) were shut-out 0-9 by the Big Red (3-0-0) at Cornell Friday evening and again 0-4 by the Raiders (1-1-1) at ColgateSaturday afternoon, losing their first two Eastern College Athletic Conference games of the year.

“Cornell is a talented team,” head coach Joakim Flygh said of last year’s conference champion and the third-ranked team in the country. “But we made it too easy for them.”

Yale incurred seven penalties in Friday’s game, giving Cornell three power play goals.

Forward Heather Grant ’12 agreed that penalties were a major factor in the outcomes of both games. “When we were in the box, we lost a lot of our momentum and struggled to regain it,” she said in an email to the News.

Saturday’s game saw Colgate take advantage of two out of six Yale penalties to score a pair of power play goals in the second period. Both Flygh and forward Paige Decker ’14 said the Elis played a strong first period but turned around in the second to take four undisciplined penalties and lose momentum.

“We dug ourselves into a deep hole, going into the third period three points down,” Flygh said. Decker added that Colgate scored on the first shift of the third period, and it was difficult to come back from that, too.

Flygh said the team needs to improve defensively, as evidenced in the game against Cornell. With the Bulldogs outshot 16-65, Flygh said the game was centered on the Elis’ defensive end of the ice. Goalie Genny Ladiges ’12 made 22 saves in the first period, and then Jaimie Leonoff ’15 took to the net to make 34 saves in the rest of the game.

The roster has been hit hard early in the season, with six players out due to illness and injury, but Flygh said that cannnot be used as an excuse for the team’s playing.

“It certainly doesn’t help us, but we can’t use it as a hindrance,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for players to step up and get more ice time, and grow into the role they have.”

Flygh added that the Bulldogs need to work on the “little details” of their game, such as back-checking, communicationand picking up players in the defensive zone, as well as consistency in giving a 60-minute effort in every game.

“Many things are not going well for us [right now], and there is lots to work on,” Flygh said. “But no doubt we’ll grow as a team.”

The Bulldogs will take on Providence on Tuesday in a non-conference game. Next weekend, they will play Quinnipiac and Princeton in their third and fourth conference games.