The Yale women’s hockey team returned home winless after an ECAC double header in upstate New York against No. 5 Colgate and Cornell.
The Bulldogs’ (4–3–1, 2–3–1 ECAC Hockey) battle against the Raiders (12–0–1, 4–0–0) during the first of a two-game weekend ended in a 4–3 defeat when Yale could not muster up a game-tying goal despite taking a one-goal lead into the third period. However, on Saturday, the Bulldogs failed to establish a lead, falling 4–2 to the Big Red (5–0–2, 3–0–2) after tying it up in the second period.
“This weekend we matched Colgate and Cornell’s offensive transition speed and did a great job of producing quality scoring opportunities,” forward Jordan Chancellor ’19 said. “But we need to focus on locking down our defensive zone and not allowing as many goals against [us].”
Coming off a five-goal weekend, ECAC Player of the Week forward Phoebe Staenz ’17 netted Yale’s first goal. Captain and forward Krista Yip-Chuck ’17 had control of the puck on a fast break and sent a perfect pass right in front of the goal to Staenz, who flicked it in. Although the Bulldogs pulled ahead with the early tally, a penalty on defender Saroya Tinker ’20 in the 14th minute resulted in a power play for the Raiders. Colgate took advantage of this opportunity, and Shae Labbe scored the Raiders’ first goal of the night.
Colgate’s offensive control of the puck was monumental in changing the momentum. In the second period alone, they won 14 out of 17 faceoffs. Just under four minutes into the second period, forward Jessie Eldridge scored a backhanded goal to put the Raiders up 2–1. Eldridge currently leads the ECAC in total points and assists, with 22 and 15, respectively.
Despite the initially being outshot 9–0, the Bulldogs still managed to tie up the game during the sixth minute of the period. Just seconds after Colgate ended a power play, Yip-Chuck broke away from her defender and sent a shot sailing past Raider goalkeeper Julia Vandyk to put another Yale goal on the board. Still carrying momentum from the previous tally, Chancellor turned an opening in the slot into another Yale goal, putting the Elis up 3–2 at 8:16 in the second.
“Our line possessed the puck and eventually an opportunity opened up,” Chancellor said. “[Forward] Kaitlin Gately ’18 … made a great pass to my stick through the [defenders] before the goalie could recover.”
With just a single period left of play, Yale still maintained its one goal lead. In the last 20 minutes, Colgate outshot Yale 12 to eight and two of those shots made it past goalie Tera Hofmann ’20 and into the net. Eldridge tied up the game with her second goal of the night for the Raiders and with less than six minutes remaining, Colgate defender Cat Quirion finalized the score during a two-on-one play with teammate Annika Zalewski against Yale defender Taylor Marchin ’17.
After getting rattled by the Raiders on Friday, the Bulldogs traveled to Ithaca on Saturday to take on Cornell. The Big Red opened the scoring when forward Diana Buckley scored within the first five minutes. Cornell then proceeded to double down when forward Pippy Gerrace scored her first goal of the season to stretch the Big Red’s lead to 2–0.
However, the Bulldogs battled back and pulled within one score after Yip-Chuck found the net with less than five minutes remaining in the opening frame off of assists from Staenz and Eden Murray ’18. Yale went into the first intermission trailing 2–1.
With nearly 14 minutes left on the clock in the second period, Cornell was assessed a two-minute minor penalty after forward Paige Lewis was whistled for checking. Yale promptly capitalized on the opportunity and got even — Staenz scored her team-leading ninth goal of the season to make it 2–2.
But that goal would be the final score of the game for the Bulldogs, as Cornell responded less than five minutes later with a strike from forward Grace Graham to give the Big Red a lead which they would never relinquish. Cornell would go on to add another tally less than one minute into the third period when forward Kristin O’Neill scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The Bulldogs ultimately fell 4–2 to Cornell in a weekend sweep by its ECAC foes, dropping them to sixth place in the conference.
“Everyone was very upset and disappointed,” defender Mallory Souliotis ’18 said. “We definitely needed to come away with some points this weekend.”
Despite the disappointing losses, the season will not get any easier for Yale, as the team prepares for matches against No. 4 St. Lawrence and No. 7 Clarkson next weekend.
The puck will drop for the Bulldogs at 6 p.m on Friday against the Saints and 3 p.m. on Saturday against the Golden Knights when the Elis return to Ingalls Rink.