HAMILTON—It was just a matter of time on Saturday afternoon at Class of 1965 Arena for the Colgate Women's Hockey team.
The Raiders dominated visiting Harvard in most statistical categories, but the game came down to one precious moment in the third period.
Colgate continued its momentum from the night before in the game's opening period. The Raiders had a myriad of chances, including a wild goalmouth scramble where
Shae Labbe,
Coralie Larose and
Caroline Ross all had quality opportunities to finish. In the end, the score remained deadlocked after 20 minutes, but the home side held a 17-10 advantage in shots.
In the second frame, the Raiders continued their onslaught, but to no avail. Colgate held a 21-8 advantage in shots in the period, but Crimson netminder Lindsay Reed was perfect through two periods with a combined 38 stops.
On the other end,
Julia Vandyk shined in the Raider net, including this stop to keep the game deadlocked.
Thanks to outstanding goaltending on both ends, the game was even going into the third period, but Colgate wasted no time in changing that.
On a long shift in the offensive end, the Raiders cashed in on a broken play.
Malia Schneider took a shot in the high slot that hit the shin pad of
Nemo Neubauerova and bounced right back to Schneider. Then, the sophomore slid the puck to a wide open
Jessie Eldridge, who blasted home her team-leading fifth goal of the year.
The Vandyk show continued to be a hit after that. The senior made another nine saves in the closing frame, including an outstanding flash of the left pad midway through the period.
Vandyk and the Raiders were able to close down the victory late in front of a crowd of 579, which is the highest on the season.
Bottom Line
Facts & Figures
- Thanks to Vandyk's perfect evening, the Raiders have now shut out two straight opponents after Liz Auby did the job on Friday against Dartmouth.
- The Raiders have not had two straight shutouts since February of this year when they had three in a row against Harvard, Brown and Yale.
- Now in her fourth season in Hamilton, Chelsea Jacques skated in her 100th game with the Raiders against the Crimson.
- After the trio was involved in the lone scoring play, Eldridge, Schneider and Neubauerova all carry two-game point streaks heading into next weekend's games.
- This is the first time the Raiders have started ECAC play 2-0 since the 2016-17 season. They started that campaign with five consecutive conference wins.
- The high attendance figure was thanks in large part to the team's Alumnae Weekend, which spanned both days and included a pregame skate on Saturday at the arena.
From the Source
Jessie Eldridge
"It feels good to get the sweep," said Eldridge. "We had last weekend off and that was nice to be able to refocus at home and get the four points."
"Give their goalie a lot of credit," said Eldridge. "It was a goalie battle and it's easy to get frustrated, but our bench stayed up and kept going and didn't stop. We knew one was going to go in eventually."
On her goal:
"Give credit to my linemates, I had the easy job," said Eldridge. "They did the work and got the puck to me, and it was nice."
Greg Fargo
"This was a really good weekend for our group," said Fargo. "From the beginning of the year, we've talked about our focus being getting better every time and improving week in and week out and this was our best weekend."
"I'm really pleased with the effort," said Fargo. "I thought we showed a lot of fight. Some of our returning players really elevated their game and some of the first-years are looking like they're really getting comfortable out on the ice."
On the weekend from Vandyk and Auby:
"We have a tremendous amount of confidence in both of them," said Fargo. "Both goalies are extremely competitive and want to be in the net. We're in a good spot knowing that we can rely on either one of them any given night."
Up Next
The Raiders play their first road ECAC games of the season next weekend when they travel to Brown and Yale. Colgate will open the weekend with a 6 p.m. puck drop against the Bears in Providence, R.I.
