“I’m just excited the team played well,” she continued. “And we were able to sweep two weekends in a row. That is the type of consistency we are looking to have this year.”

Friday night’s 6-1 victory saw four power play goals while three different Engineers tallied multiple points. There was an early score by junior Nicole McDonald, assisted by classmate Mel Guillemette, who grabbed a pass from Barbera and sent it on to McDonald at 14:56.

Although Maine managed to tie the game in the second period, RPI bounced back minutes later with goals by first freshman Kendra Dunlop, and then Guillemette to put RPI up 3-1 at the 11:35 mark. Allysen Weidner put the Engineers up 4-1 at 5:18 in the third frame off a great pass by classmate Whitney Naslund.

Senior Brooke Thompson and junior Jamie-Lynn Stewart finished up the scoring with two goals in under a minute. “Our main objective is always to come out with a win,” said Thompson after the weekend. “I think the fact that a lot of the girls are contributing to the scoring is also a positive.”

RPI controlled the game while outshooting the visitors 49-19; junior goaltender Ashley Mayr made 18 saves in her second victory of the season. “Our goalies certainly have been looking really good and have come up with some key saves in our games thus far,” said Barbera of the strong goal-tending this season.

The next afternoon, the Black Bears managed to keep the score more reasonable, yet the final outcome was no different as the home-standing Engineers ran away with a solid 3-1 win.

A quiet first period prefaced the Engineers breaking out with two goals in the second as McDonald scored at 5:13 and then Guillemette followed at 10:26. Sophomore Allyson Wright put RPI up by three off another assist from Naslund.

Maine’s attempted comeback was too little, too late when sophomore Amy Stech, of Duluth East, scored with less than two minutes remaining on the clock.

Freshman Sonja van der Bliek had 19 saves for the win as RPI outshot Maine, 36-20. “Both goaltenders, Sonja and Ashley, were and have been a huge part of our wins,” said Thompson.

“One big positive for the offense and defense is that we are working well with each other to put the puck in the net,” said Barbera. “Forwards and defense are both scoring so far this year, which I think was somewhat of a problem for us last year. Last year, we had some trouble capitalizing on our chances but this year we’ve already had two games where six goals were scored and have been able to take advantage of our opponents’ mistakes.”

The team’s record only stands to show the momentum that the team is gathering this year, and as the league games are approaching, that experience and confidence is all the more important. “Winning is definitely a contributing factor to our momentum and confidence so hopefully we can keep it up,” said Thompson.

“We certainly have a lot of momentum going into this weekend with a four-game winning streak,” said Barbera after the weekend’s victories. “But coach makes sure to keep us very well grounded, pointing out we have things to work on and we haven’t played perfectly, which is really good for us because we need to go into games knowing we’ll have to work hard every shift to come out with a win.”

While the team is enjoying the victories, there are always things to improve upon early in the season. “There will always be need for improvement,” said Barbera. “We get better with each practice and learn something we can do better after every video session.”

“We will have to continue to work on our D-zone as we play tougher teams in our league,” said Thompson.

“We for the most part stuck to our systems but Sunday got away from them a bit and found ourselves running around out there for a few shifts,” said Barbera. “We were able to regain control but we’re definitely going to continue to go over them in practice so we are prepared for situations in games.”

The Engineers host their first ECAC games of the season next weekend as they welcome Yale University and Brown University on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively. “We definitely want to come out with a win against both Yale and Brown,” said Barbera. “We lost twice to Yale, both close games, and we tied and lost to Brown last year. It is important to beat these teams especially because they are most likely the ones we will be competing with for a playoff seed. We’re a much more mature team this year and are striving for consistency, so winning back-to-back games is extremely plausible and is a goal of ours.”