A series of losses in Detroit to Wayne State led to a disappointing weekend for the Rensselaer women’s hockey team. The losses were particularly tough to swallow since the Engineers had only one loss this season, and had not absorbed consectuvie losses or a weekend sweep since moving up to the Division I level. Friday night’s contest was close, but Wayne State held on 2-1. On Saturday, despite taking control of the first period, Rensselaer fell apart for nearly 10 minutes as the Warriors virtually scored at will with a string of four goals.
Rensselaer Head Coach John Burke remained highly optimistic, maintaining that, “One little nine-minute stretch” does not take away from the big wins the Engineers have had so far this year. “We did a lot of things well; we had a real strong third period. You have to give Wayne State some credit, they capitalized on our mistakes. We’ve been able to do that to the other teams all year; now the tables turned.”
Freshman forward Jaime-Lynn Stewart attributed the losses to “coughing up the puck” and “a team thing, we all were trying to do too much.” She did have second thoughts about the outcome of the game. “We definitely could have beat them,” she said. “We had our chances in the third; if only we would have played like that the whole game, we would have won.”
With the losses, RPI drops to a still-stellar 13-3-2 record with seven more games to play this winter. But far more than their record is at stake next weekend, when they invade Clarkson to challenge the ninth ranked Golden Knights. Burke said, “We’re excited about the opportunity to present ourselves this weekend.” Stewart feels both nervous and excited about the big weekend.
“It’s our opportunity to prove that we’re for real. There’s a little bit of history over on the men’s side,” said Burke with a chuckle, “and we’ll be bringing it over to the women’s side.”
The men beat Clarkson two weeks ago in an intense 4-3 game before a packed Houston Field House.
Last Friday, the Warriors and Engineers played their first of two games in Detroit. Sticking with the traditional RPI entrance, the team saw Wayne State score early in both the first and second periods to take the lead 2-0. RPI was shutout until midway through the third period when Stewart scored; she was assisted by fellow freshman Melanie Guillemette and sophomore Brooke Thompson. Even when senior goalie Rosina Schiff was pulled with a minute to go, the Engineers were unable to capitalize on an opportunity and lost the game 2-1.
“After the first game, we knew what we were getting into,” said Stewart. “I wish we could take back the weekend; we could definitely win.” Between games, a line change was made, switching senior Julie Welte with freshman Emily Donowick. The only reason was to “try something new,” Burke said, admitting “the lines have been the same since day one.” The new look paid off for the Engineers as seniors Kari Rabatin and Welte together on the new line connected to score a rare first period goal.
It was all downhill from there, though. Freshman goalie Ashley Mayr and her defense had a rough period as they let in four goals in about 10 minutes. With this swift feat, the Warriors crushed RPI’s confidence, and the Engineers would lose complete control of the game by the end of the third period. “We got frustrated with each other when they scored four goals which took away the game for us,” Stewart said. Burke believes that “we didn’t play our best hockey of the year” in the second period on Saturday.
In the third period, the famed comeback finally was in action as Guillemette scored off passes by freshman Jaime Jacquard-Sowa and junior captain Sarah Daniel. But it was too little, too late and the Engineers lost 4-2 capping a disappointing, but not disheartening, weekend.
The team is completely healthy and in great shape to take on notorious Clarkson next Saturday at 2 pm, especially if they continue where they left off at the end of this weekend and remember the energy of play that is necessary to dominate the game.
