Women's Hockey 4, Cornell 3: Friars Overcome Red Scare

Report based on ICS Live Stats
Ithaca, N.Y.- In the small moments of the New Year, a few old patterns still look to be lingering in the Friars’ gamely regimen. Customarily, the 2008-09 PC women have partnered with a night’s given adversary and filled most every game’s grande cup to the full 60-minute (or more) brim with scalding competitive intensity; whether that be in rally time, duck-and-cover-the-net time, or tip-the-scale-on-that-tie time.

And in the climactic phases of yesterday’s first of two late-weekend matinee drop-ins on Cornell, they were again flirting with a narrow goal differential –in this case, a 4-3 upper hand concocted back in a tempestuous second period. And within the final four-and-a-half minutes of regulation, a tripping penalty to defender Colleen Martin incited the briefly idled Big Red offense for a nearly continuous, four-shot power play swarm.

But goaltender Danielle Ciarletta, who was summoned in the second period to put out Genevieve Lacasse’s uncharacteristic fire, refused to default. And within 31 seconds of Martin’s jailbreak, Providence picked up a handy clock killer with 2:02 to spare, drawing a checking citation against Cornell defender Amber Moore. From there, they swiftly cemented an epic 4-3 triumph, wherein they abolished a 3-0 deficit in the second period, then warded off a second tide of the dogged Big Red offense in the closing frame.

The mutual allotment of goals and the eventual goaltending swaps on both benches were about the only jutting deviations from the norm. PC and the opposition had not combined for five-plus goals since the Robert Morris series over the first full weekend of November.

To start yesterday’s tussle, the excruciating numbness amongst the scoring brigade skulked and slunk down to bite the long all-but-infallible cage custodian, Lacasse.

Lacasse, who still has yet to authorize more than three goals in a 60-minute time frame over her first 14 collegiate ventures, already had a threesome of flecks on merely nine shots faced within the sixteenth minute of yesterday’s first period.

Meanwhile, the Friars’ frost-bitten offense saw eight of its first 11 shot attempts snuffed before they could come within playing distance of Cornell stopper Jenny Niesluchowski. Another bid, discharged by Alyse Ruff mere seconds after the Big Red drew first blood, wiped off the post and scampered away from a threatening position.

Swift conversions on the part of Catherine White (at the 3:45 mark), Laura Danforth (10:32), and Ashley Duffy (15:33) pole-vaulted Cornell to a gaping 3-0 advantage. Friars’ head coach Bob Deraney unhesitatingly forked out the overcooked freshman goalie, but remarkably witnessed an equally prompt reversal of momentum.

Ciarletta would push away all of 22 shots faced and her skating associates perked up to make their first incision a mere 17 ticks after Duffy’s goal. Katy Beach inserted her club’s icebreaker with 4:10 till intermission and the power play thawed well enough to charge up three registered stabs on its first of three opportunities before the first buzzer.

The Friars assertively gushed through the second period, running up a 17-10 lead in the shooting gallery after each team had afforded 11 shots in the first, utterly fettering the Red on the period’s only full-length power play, and whittling steadily into the lead. After initially shaking a carry-over penalty to Jennifer Friedman, they wrinkled the deficit to 3-2 via Ruff at 2:18.

Niesluchowski (14 saves) would last but another 3:16 of play before she gave way to Kayla Strong at the 5:34 mark. Strong ran unblemished for a little under 10 minutes, partially owing to a shortage of shooting activity, but was in turn softened by a back-and-forth tempest within the 14th minute that saw her kick out four shots, her teammates block another two, and Ciarletta swallow three on two visits by the Big Red.

On the other end of the long-time-coming draw, Abby Gauthier caught up with Beach’s face-off win and pulled PC even, 3-3. Thirty-one ticks later, Ashley Cottrell planted the eventual clincher for PC at 15:29, granting linemate Laura Veharanta her second helper on the day.

PC spilled its sugar rush over to the young minutes of the third before Cornell perked back up to distribute ten unanswered SOG. The Friars would bust that fast via Erin Normore and Ruff over their last-minute, rally-squashing power play.

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

Women's Hockey Log: Gauthier, Ruff End Slumps To Pilot Rally

Ithaca, N.Y.- The Friars’ answer to a toe-curling recession –i.e. a dire call for a stimulus package- fell in the form of a massive puckslide over the first quarter of action at Lynah Rink yesterday. All it took for the shallow offense to chafe their bonfire twigs more fervently was a rapid 3-0 deficit at the hands of host Cornell –a team roughly identical to the Yale program that had opportunistically slighted PC, 2-1, in overtime early last week.

But the exponentially pressing swing of futility served to bail a couple of Friars out of their respective slumps en route to a 4-3 victory. Freshman Abby Gauthier, who has struggled to translate her heftily saturated high school resume, entered yesterday on a nine-game scoring drought dating back to a 4-2 win at Vermont Oct. 19. She had since found herself rotating between the fourth line and the upper bowl of the arena seating chart.

Yesterday, Gauthier splashed her personal drought by assisting on Katy Beach’s connection late in the first period, then switching roles with the senior to draw a 3-3 knot at 14:58 of the second period –her first goal since Part II of the opening weekend Ohio State series.

Meanwhile, untouchable first-liner Alyse Ruff had been grudgingly gritting her teeth over a little-big break from the scoresheet. Ever since she slugged home a thrilling equalizer against Niagara Nov. 22, she went pointless over the next four games spaced between Thanksgiving and the aforementioned Yale excursion last Tuesday.

Ruff, only a day removed from her 20th birthday, thawed out her twig at 2:18 of the middle frame to treat herself to the Friars’ second strike of the game and her seventh on the year, keeping her second-best on the team in the G column behind linemate Laura Veharanta’s 13. She would later receive belated credit for an assist on Ashley Cottrell’s game winner hours after the final horn. Cottrell was similarly credited on the play that amounted to Ruff’s conversion, equaling five multi-point individual performances on the PC roster.

Through the duration of their teammates’ struggles, the winger Veharanta and centerpiece Cottrell have at least retained their productive touch. They each stretched their living point-getting streaks to four games.

No sweat
For the third time in four outings and the seventh overall this season, the first goal served nothing to its cultivator. Providence concocted its third come-from-behind win of the year and second rally from a multi-point deficit, the other being the 2-2 knot with Niagara prior Thanksgiving.

Additionally, the Friars have again defied the opposition’s home ice advantage, stamping their seventh road win in ten tries. With that, they have already surpassed their accumulation of road Ws from each of the three preceding seasons.

Quick Feeds: Forward Erin Normore and defender Colleen Martin led the Friars’ stick rack with five shots on net apiece…Senior goaltender Danielle Ciarletta improved to 2-2-2 on the year with the win. Combining her fractional relief appearance with her last start-to-finish outing, she has an active shutout streak brewing at an even 83 minutes…Part II of this series commences today at 2 p.m. It will be the Friars’ final engagement from without New England borders this regular season…Today’s game will be team captain Brittany Simpson’s 125th career appearance in a PC uniform. After today, classmate Katy Beach should be only five outings away from attaining the same milestone.

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press

Women's Hockey 4, Maine 1: Friars Improve To 6-1-1 On The Road

Report based on CSTV Gametracker

 

Orono, Maine- On the heels of her team killing a carry-over penalty, one that may have otherwise invited the host Maine Black Bears to kindle an epic comeback, Friars’ two-way connoisseur Erin Normore improvised a dazzling, silent soliloquy to set the tone for yesterday’s third period.

 

Implanted at the center of a line with freshman Kate Bacon and equally crafty classmate Mari Pehkonen for even strength play, Normore spotted two consecutive shots on net before drawing a body-checking minor on Kaitlyn Zeek right at the 2:00 mark. From there, upon being reassigned to patrol the points with Brittany Simpson for the power play, she carried right along with another three lashes at goaltender Genevieve Turgeon (27 saves).

 

Nothing of that singlehanded rubber blizzard did anything to alter the scoreboard. But, off a draw forced by Turgeon when she closed down Normore’s fifth shot, the PC’s alternate captain turned things over to her superior C-bearer Simpson, who nimbly leveled the conversion at 2:53, augmenting the lead to 3-1.

 

From there, the Friars took a reasonably comfy ride to their second 4-1 knockoff at Alfond Arena in as many days. They thus swept their two-night visit to, and entire regular season series, with the Black Bears and can walk into their 23-day December deceleration with the notion that they are unbeaten (6-0-1) in seven of eight away games this season, the exception being their first road trip to Northeastern in mid-October.

 

Their incomprehensible command of hostile ice houses hit a climax yesterday, as was best reflected in goaltender Genevieve Lacasse’s unusually light workload of 11 total shots faced. Lacasse only needed to handle one stab –from Dawn Sullivan- in the early half of a scoreless first period, and then assumed an in-depth spectator role as her teammates eventually came to make their own goal count exceed the Black Bears’ collection of shots late in the second.

 

During that agonizing interval of inactivity, the Maine offense saw all of its ten sparsely distributed attempts blocked or telepathically guided wide of the cage.

 

To their credit, the Black Bears similarly filtered a majority of what the Friars discharged, forcing Turgeon to confront a personally shallow 21 shots before the 40-minute buzzer. But PC simply mollified Maine to a breakable state and finally broke through on their fourteenth registered try at the 8:19 mark, top gun Laura Veharanta making good of a feed from Ashley Cottrell.

 

Pam McDevitt, rotated back into the active depth chart after taking Friday off in favor of Stephanie Morris and Lauren Covell, collaborated with defender Jennifer Friedman at 15:32, to set up fourth-line associate Jean O’Neill’s backdoor conversion, rounding out the protracted tempest of 17 unanswered shots with a slightly more assertive 2-0 edge.

 

However, the frostbitten Lacasse sustained a reflective dent when Maine finally refurbished its stick rack moments after Gauthier’s goal when PC defender Amber Yung was flagged for holding at 17:04. In a matter of 24 seconds, the Bears’ pleasantly fruitful power play brigade splashed the team’s SOG drought on a lashing by Lexi Hoffmeyer, then cut the deficit to 2-1 courtesy Jenna Ouellette on the rebound.

 

But Maine’s twigs went numb once more to commence the closing frame, not to resuscitate until after the halfway mark, when they laid out three power play shots and two more immediately after Leigh Riley’s release from a two-minute body-checking sentence.

 

The Friars would cement the 4-1 tally through Arianna Rigano’s quick empty netter with 1:16 to spare, a mere four seconds after Turgeon had vacated her crease to make space for the desperate six-pack attack.

 

Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com

 

This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press