Winless woes continued for the Yale women’s hockey team this weekend as St. Lawrence and No. 5 Clarkson, Yale’s first two ECAC opponents, blew out the Bulldogs.
The Elis fell 4–1 at St. Lawrence (4–6–0, 3–1–0 ECAC) on Friday before traveling to Clarkson (7–2–2, 2–1–1 ECAC) the next day and suffering a 7–0 blowout.
“There’s no sense in sugar coating it, we really didn’t play well either of the games this weekend,” forward Jamie Haddad ’16 said. “Anyone who watched the game could see that we just didn’t show up to play and compete.”
The weekend’s results come as a disappointment for the Elis (0–4–0, 0–2–0 ECAC), who began the year with losses to national powerhouses No. 6 Boston College and Boston University by just one goal.
St. Lawrence took the lead early on Friday with a goal six minutes into the first period on its first power play of the game. After the goal, the Bulldogs were able to ward off the Saints on each of their remaining five power plays.
Neither team could score in the remainder of that period or the second one. Yale’s scoreless streak continued despite three power-play chances and 15 shots over the first two periods.
Defenseman Kate Martini ’16 narrowly missed tying the game in the second frame, hitting the post on a quick wrist shot from in front of the net.
The Saints built on their lead early in the third period. Yale goaltender Jaimie Leonoff ’15 saved a shot from an oncoming attacker, but a Saint forward recovered the rebound and passed the puck out to assist a goal from St. Lawrence forward Jessica Hon.
Yale pulled Leonoff in the final minutes of the game in an attempt to create more offensive opportunities.
The Saints took advantage with four minutes left on the clock as they recovered the puck in their zone and began an attack. Leonoff rushed back onto the ice as St. Lawrence defenseman Kirsten Padalis took a shot from the neutral zone, but the shot narrowly avoided a diving Leonoff and ended up in the back of the net.
The Bulldogs were less than two minutes away from being shut out when Martini scored her first goal of the season. Haddad passed the puck down into the corner to forward Hanna Astrom ’16, who sent the puck towards the center of the ice to Martini for a one-timer finish.
The Saints tallied one more goal in the final seconds of the game to solidify their 4–1 victory. Overall, they outshot the Elis 40–25 in the game, though Leonoff finished the game with 36 saves.
Haddad said that the difference between the Bulldogs’ games against BC and BU and the game against St. Lawrence was in the team’s mentality.
“We came out starting the games [against BC and BU] knowing that we were going to have to play as though it was the third period and we were down a goal,” Haddad said. “Knowing that St. Lawrence isn’t as good a team as BU or BC, we didn’t really play that competitively.”
The Bulldogs traveled to Clarkson hoping to redeem themselves against a nationally ranked squad. But Yale saw no mercy from the Golden Knights, who have shut out opponents in three of their last seven games.
Clarkson took a 1–0 lead on a power play six minutes into the game and tacked on another goal just 34 seconds later. By the end of the first period, the Golden Knights had racked up 19 shots while the Bulldogs had just six.
The rampage continued in the second period with four goals from Clarkson. Before the third period, goaltender Hanna Mandl ’17 came in to replace Leonoff, who had made 27 saves in the first two periods.
Clarkson’s offense appeared to put on the brakes in the third, as Mandl faced just five shots and allowed one goal before the clock ran out for a 7–0 Clarkson victory. Seven different Golden Knight players scored in the shutout.
After the game, Haddad said that the team met to discuss its attitude for the rest of the season.
“One of the [things we talked about] is never being satisfied with mediocre play,” Haddad said. “We also talked about holding people more accountable for their actions. If someone’s not skating 100 percent in a drill, it’s our responsibility as teammates to call them out on it and make sure that everyone is putting the work in … I’m hoping that we’re going to have a more serious tone Monday to Thursday this week.”
The Elis have faced a string of strong squads to start the season, and this trend will continue in Yale’s home opening weekend against Princeton (2–2–0, 2–2–0 ECAC) and No. 9 Quinnipiac (7–1–2, 2–1–1 ECAC).
Martini, however, noted that the schedule can provide an advantage.
“I think [the tough schedule] motivates us,” Martini said. “We’re obviously a team trying to change our culture, trying to create a winning a culture here, and to play those tough opponents at the top of the season gives us an opportunity to show everyone that we can play against them. Obviously, we’d like to be winning against those types of teams.”
Yale will look to learn from its struggles this week to improve. Captain and defender Tara Tomimoto ’14 said that one key for the Elis will be to remain positive.
“We are going to be watching a lot of video to try and learn from our mistakes,” Tomimoto said.
The Bulldogs will play Princeton on Friday at 7 p.m. and Quinnipiac on Saturday at 4 p.m.