Sports
Women’s ice hockey continues to surprise
By John Wulf '12, Sports Staff Writer
February 16, 2012
The Hamilton women’s hockey team has been frustratingly good this season. It has lost by six goals to Elmira, it has been shutout by Wesleyan, and it has been swept by both Williams and Trinity. It has also defeated Middlebury, the top-ranked team in the NESCAC; it has taken two from Connecticut College, the 18th best team in D-III; and recently, against the best team in the nation, Hamilton made RIT uncomfortable for 60 minutes.
To put it simply, Hamilton has been unpredictable. This past weekend against Bowdoin, Hamilton did it again.
On Friday night, Hamilton was badly outplayed and lost 5-1. Bowdoin dominated time of possession, location of possession and shots on goal. Said Head Coach Brendon Knight, “Bowdoin probably has the best line in the conference and their forwards put a ton of pressure on us. We may have been surprised by how fast they were, but the intensity level wasn’t where it needed to be and we paid for it.”
By the next day, Hamilton had seemingly learned its lesson. And within a 15-hour time period, the team went through more of a transformation than Doctor Jekyll at a Rocky Horror party.
In the second game, despite not having one its top defenseman in Meredith Bitterman ’12, Hamilton played sharp and applied pressure. Signaling to Bowdoin that things had changed, Hamilton started with a flurry of shots on net. Then, two minutes into the game, Nikki Haskins ’14 capped off the hot start when she pick-pocketed a defender and scored on a nifty deke.
Bowdoin later tied the game with under two minutes left to play in the first period, but the game remained even until Hamilton earned its fifth power-play midway through the third period. The team hadn’t scored a power play goal in nine games, but after some crisp passing in the offensive zone, Emily Baxter ’13 found Riley Smith ’12 in front of the net for a one-timer. Smith slammed home what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
With under a minute left to go, Baxter finished off the victory when she backhanded the puck towards Bowdoin’s empty net. It slowly and tantalizingly trickled past the goal line just out of the reach of the last defender.
With its weekend split, Hamilton now sits at fifth place in the NESCAC with two games left to play. Statistically, Hamilton can finish as high as fourth and as low as sixth. Realistically, the team will likely stay at its current position and play at Trinity in the first round. Still, despite the near certainty of his team’s fate, Coach Knight is focused on finishing strong.
“The goal is always to get better every week. We have to work on our special teams and Colby has been a tough team to play this year. This is an important weekend for us.”