The women’s ice hockey team has been here before. The defending NESCAC Champions are no longer strangers to the postseason or even postseason success. A year after the Jeffs won the first playoff game in program history, and almost a year after they needed overtime to win in all three of their NESCAC Tournament games, Amherst defeated Bowdoin College 5-1 at home in the NESCAC quarterfinals.
In a game that featured a couple of highlight-reel goals and some spectacular saves, the score was not very indicative of the intensity both teams displayed on the ice. The Polar Bears out-shot Amherst 16-11 in the first period, but it was the Jeffs who took a lead into the locker room. Just over 14 minutes into the game, Amherst’s top two scorers, forwards Courtney Hanlon ’11 and Tarasai Karega ’09, were set loose on a 2-on-0 breakaway. With tic-tac-toe precision, Hanlon slipped a pass to Karega, who gave the puck right back. Hanlon snapped a perfect wrist shot to give the Jeffs a 1-0 lead.
Desperate to erase Amherst’s picturesque goal from their minds, the Polar Bears tied the game at 1:34 in the second period. Things got tense for Amherst when just over two minutes later the Jeffs were called for a penalty. However, before the announcer even finished declaring the transgression over the PA system, forward Lindsey Harrington ’09 responded in a big way. The junior took the puck off a Bowdoin player at the Amherst blue line and sped off on her own down the ice. As she approached the goalie, Harrington deked to the backhand and lifted the puck into the net.
The Jeffs seemed to thrive off Harrington’s effort. Amherst picked up the intensity while killing off the rest of the penalty, and even forced the Polar Bears to ice the puck though they were on the power play. The Jeffs then converted on their own man-advantage when sophomore forward Molly Malloy poked home her 11th goal of the season. Defenseman Kirsten Dier ’10 and forward Anna MacLean ’09 picked up assists on the play.
The Polar Bears continued to pay for their penalties as the Jeffs’ fourth goal came on a delayed call against Bowdoin. Julianne Radziewicz ’09 and forward Braidie Campbell ’11 fed senior forward Elizabeth Ditmore who scored from the right face-off circle.
Though the 4-1 score at the end of the second period indicated that the game was all but over for Bowdoin, the Polar Bears actually out-shot the Jeffs two periods in a row. Sophomore goalie Krystyn Elek posted 26 saves over that span to maintain Amherst’s three-goal cushion.
In the third period, the Jeffs fired 15 shots on goal while holding Bowdoin to seven. Just before the midpoint of the period, Karega capped the scoring. She took a pass from sophomore forward Michelle McGann, turned, waited and then fired the puck off the crossbar and into the net.
With the win, the Jeffs advance to the NESCAC semifinals where they will face Trinity College. The game will be played at Middlebury College, as the Panthers earned the right to host the tournament after claiming the top seed. In the second weekend of the season Amherst went 1-0-1 in a home-and-home series with the Bantams. Since then, Trinity has gone 15-3-2 (8-2-2 NESCAC) to claim the third seed in the NESCAC Tournament, while Amherst’s 15-3-3 (9-0-3 NESCAC) record since playing the Bantams gave the Jeffs the second seed. The team will be missing one of their key defenders in Dier, who tore her ACL and meniscus this past weekend.
“Trinity is a good team, with a great goalie,” said Radziewicz. “We tied them once early in the season and they also tied Middlebury, so it’ll be a tough game. One of our main strengths is speed so hopefully they won’t be able to keep up on the Olympic sized rink [at Middlebury].”
Another advantage for Amherst is experience. The Jeffs know what it takes to win the NESCAC Championship, and they are anxious to do it again. “I think we’re all really excited,” said Ditmore. “I think the memories from last year will be hard to block out, and we’ll have to remember to take it one game at a time so that we don’t automatically assume too much. But we’ve always enjoyed playing in [Middlebury’s] rink.”
Even with their experience, the fourth-ranked Jeffs see the game against Trinity as an opportunity to continue to prove themselves. “I think a lot of people had doubts last year about the capabilities of our team, so it’s awesome that we are heading back to the tournament as the number two seed,” said Elek. Most of all, though, it just feels great because we love playing together, and as long as the season keeps going, we can still do that.”