W. Icers Blank No. 2 Clarkson, Fall to St. Lawrence

The women’s hockey team split its two league games over the weekend at Lynah Rink –– shutting out the second-ranked team in the nation in the Clarkson Golden Knights before falling to the Saints of St. Lawrence on Saturday afternoon, 3-2. Sophomore goaltender Amanda Mazzotta stopped all 33 shots Clarkson (12-2-1, 6-1 ECAC) threw at her Friday night and the Red killed off six power plays to beat ECAC leader Clarkson 2-0. The Red (5-3, 5-1 ECAC) then coughed up a 2-0 lead against St. Lawrence (6-4-4, 3-3-1 ECAC), allowing the Saints three straight goals and handing the Red its first league loss of the season.

Sophomores Kendice Ogilvie and Catherine White each recorded the goals for the Red on Friday, but the story of the night was the Red’s defensive effort versus the potent Clarkson offense. Mazzotta recorded her third shutout of the season and the Red’s penalty killing unit was able to fend off consistent power play opportunities from the Golden Knights. [4]White-out: Sophomore forward Catherine White scored two goals on the weekend, while also contributing an assist. Friday’s win put Cornell atop the ECAC standings, but the experience proved short-lived after Saturday’s loss.

“We were shorthanded more often than we would have liked,” said sophomore Chelsea Karpenko, who recorded an assist in the game. “We just took it one penalty at a time and were able to kill them off. [Mazzotta] came up big for us and kept us in the game when we needed it the most.”

The win put the Red atop the ECAC standings, but it proved short-lived due to the loss to St. Lawrence on Saturday and a 4-1 win by Clarkson over Colgate.

Against the Saints, the Red held a 2-0 lead in the second period before allowing the Saints to score one in the second and two in the third to come away with the victory. After a win versus the ECAC leader on Friday, and jumping out to an early lead on Saturday, it is possible that the Red may have eased up mentally.

“I guess you could say there was maybe a little bit of a mental lapse,” Karpenko said. “We may have taken [St. Lawrence] a little more lightly than we should have. But I think we learned our lesson and we’ll know better next time.”

A weak point for the Red over the weekend was its production on the power play, where the team went 0 for 7 on the weekend.

“We’re not getting enough shots on net on the power play, and we’re not being aggressive enough recovering the puck,” Karpenko said. “If we can fix those two things we should start scoring again.”

The weekend was clearly filled with mixed emotions for the Red; after beating Clarkson to become the only ECAC team undefeated in league play, the loss to St. Lawrence served as a wakeup call that the team still has a lot to improve on.

“It’s definitely a mixed bag of emotions,” said senior Melanie Jue. “I think that as a team we didn’t play up to our standards; we beat Clarkson, which is great, but at the same time we lost to St. Lawrence. It makes it especially hard when you know that you didn’t come out of the gates at full speed. I don’t think our confidence is shaken at all, but it was definitely a wake up call that we can’t expect to win every game. We’ve got to show up every day and play hard.”