Women’s Hockey Sweeps Series With Williams, Falls at Home to Norwich

February recess was a successful week for the women’s ice hockey team, however the team fell to top-ranked Norwich on Tuesday, Feb. 12. The team went 3-1 in NESCAC games with two wins against Williams and a split against Connecticut College. The three out of league games, against Plattsburgh, St. Anselm and Norwich, all resulted in losses. The team now stands with a 15-6-2 (12-2-2 in NESCAC) record and has one more game to play until they compete in the NESCAC tournament.

Both games against Williams concluded in a 4-1 win. The squad played the Ephs at home on Feb. 9 and then traveled to Williams to play the team on their ice. The Panthers took charge straight away, while under heavy pressure from the Ephs, scoring two goals within the first period. Lauren Greer ’13 had the first goal, with assists from Emily Fluke ’15 and Kate Moreau ’15. Hannah Bielawski ’15 tapped in the second goal of the first period with help from Greer and Fluke. The home team continued to keep the lead by scoring one more goal in the second period as Julia Wardwell ’16 passed to Madeline Joyce ’13 for the goal, allowing the team to enter the third period with a 3-0 lead. Molly Downey’s ’13 assist to Mackenzie Martin ’15 advanced the score to 4-0 but the team’s hope for a shut out were dashed when William’s Sam Weinstein scored a goal with 7:03 left on the clock.

Middlebury statistically had more control over the game, with 35 shots on goal against the Eph’s 18. The Panthers also earned one more penalty than Williams, giving them two more minutes on the clock for chances to make a comeback.

After making the four-hour drive to Williamstown, Mass., the team clenched another 4-1 win against the Eph’s. The team once again beat the home squad by 17 shots on goal and Williams was penalized 12 more times than the College, earning them 12 minutes of power plays. Williams came out strong and scored the first goal of the game in the first period, shutting out the Panthers for the first 20 minutes.

However, the Panthers came back and tallied up two goals in the second period, one by Heather Marrison ’13 assisted by Greer, and the other by Katie Sullivan ‘15 with help from Downey. The last 20 minutes of the game began with a 2-1 lead by Middlebury, who wrapped up the game for a 4-1 victory. A strong pass from Greer to senior tri-captain Madison Styrbicki ’13 executed the third goal of the game, and the fourth and final goal of the game was a beautiful unassisted goal by Fluke.

“Our team is feeling good. We played two tough games against Williams this weekend, and came out with solid wins,” said Katie Mandigo ’16. “We’ve had a few disappointing losses in the NESCAC this season, and I think everyone on our team would like another opportunity to play teams like Bowdoin and Conn College to avenge our losses against them earlier in the season.”

Tuesday night, Feb. 12, the team played Norwich University at Kenyon arena and came out with a loss. The Panthers came out strong and held a 2-1 lead over the cadets going into the second period but the visiting team fought back to beat the home squad 5-3.

Looking forward toward the end of the season, the team has clenched the top seed for the upcoming NESCAC tournament. With that they will host the quarterfinal game on Feb. 23 and have earned the right to host the championship weekend on March 2 and 3 if they win in the quarterfinals.

“We’re excited about the NESCAC quarters approaching,” said Greer. “It’s another opportunity to prove ourselves given that we are the number one seed going into it – we want to make that finite.”

“We won’t do a whole lot of new things [to prepare for post-season],” said head coach Bill Mandigo. “We will just spend a little more time on the power play and the penalty kill.  We hope to get some of our injured players back, which will help a great deal.”

This week the Middlebury women’s ice hockey team will wrap up their regular season with an away matchup against Elmira.

“All of our non-league games are big games,” says Mandigo. “We try to play the best teams we can outside of our league because we believe playing the top competition will help us when we play our NESCAC schedule.”