Women’s Hockey: UVM Falls at Holy Cross; Middlebury Completes Sweep of Williams

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont and Middlebury Sports Information Offices

Two stories below ….

WORCESTER, MA. — Julia Pelletier stopped all 29 shots for Holy Cross (5-21-5, 5-18-2 HEAW) in a 2-0 victory over Vermont (10-16-7, 7-14-5 HEAW) on Sunday afternoon at the Hart Center. The contest was the Catamounts’ final road game of the regular season.

COACH’S QUOTE
“Congrats to Holy Cross,” head coach Jim Plumer said. “They outworked us for most of the game and deserved to win. Suddenly we aren’t playing as a team as much as we need to to have success. We have to find a way to regroup and do that.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hockey East counterparts skated to a scoreless opening frame with the Crusaders owning a 12-5 shot advantage.
Holy Cross took a 1-0 lead when Mary Edmonds struck with 8:20 left in the second period. The Crusaders stole the puck in the offensive zone and Sofia Smithson found Edmonds in front of the UVM goal where she quickly fired a shot past Blanka Škodová (20 saves). Bailey Bennett had the secondary assist.
The Catamounts had chances late in the middle frame to tie the game at 1-1. Corinne McCool’s shot left a rebound for Maude Poulin-Labelle, but her shot trickled wide in the late minutes of the period.
Vermont outshot Holy Cross 15-5 in the third period and nearly found the equalizer, but Pelletier never yielded a goal. Late in the frame, Kristina Shanahan toe-dragged around a defender and snapped a shot from between the hash marks, but the HC goaltender swallowed it up.
In the final minutes, the Catamounts pulled Škodová to bring on the extra attacker in their tying effort. Vermont swarmed the Holy Cross goal, but the Crusaders eventually cleared the puck out of the defensive zone. With 31 seconds left, Katie MacCuaig directed a shot from the neutral zone into the open net for an insurance marker.

UP NEXT
Vermont hosts Maine on Saturday (Feb. 22) for Senior Day, presented by the UVM Alumni Association. Puck drop at Gutterson Fieldhouse is slated for 4 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase at UVMAthletics.com.

MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury wrapped up the home portion of the schedule with a 3-1 NESCAC victory over visiting Williams on Sunday. The second-ranked Panthers (17-2-3, 12-1-1) hit the road for the final weekend of the regular season with a pair of games at Bowdoin, while the Ephs (11-8-4, 8-6-2) host Plymouth State on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

Williams jumped out to a 1-0 lead 5:58 into the opening period. Kelly McCarthy knocked in a pass from behind the net off the stick of CC Wallin. The hosts used a late power-play tally to send the teams into the first intermission deadlocked at 1-1. Mollie Dalbey slid a pass from behind the net to Madie Leidt at the bottom of the left circle, who one-timed a shot past Williams goalie Chloe Heiting with just 8.2 seconds left on the clock.

Middlebury didn’t waste any time taking its first lead in the second stanza, pulling ahead after just 1:52 of action. Sidney Portner skated up the left side and wired a perfect shot into the upper-right corner of the net for her fourth tally of the season. The Ephs made a push with on a power play later in the period, with Panther goalie Lin Han making a leg save on a bid by Delaney Szlezyngier and Avery Dunn’s rebound attempt. Leidt increased Middlebury’s lead to 3-1 with 2:33 on the clock, wristing a shot from the left circle past Heiting. The score was her conference-leading 15th of the campaign.

In the final period, Middlebury relied on its conference-leading penalty killing unit to wash out 15 seconds of carryover time, before muting a second opportunity just over a minute later. Han came up big in the late stages, stopping Elizabeth Welch with a pad save from the slot. The Ephs pulled Heiting for the final 2:35 looking to close the margin to a goal, but the hosts protected the lead for the 3-1 final.

Han earned victory in goal for the Panthers with 22 saves, while Heiting registered 25 stops for the hosts.

Middlebury shined again on special teams, going 1-3 on the power play and killing off three shorthanded situations, increasing its season total to a perfect 43-43 in NESCAC play.