The Brown Bears opened up scoring quickly in the first period on Friday night. Freshman Erica Kromm took a shot from the blue line at 3:08 that hit junior goaltender Ashley Mayr straight in the stomach and fell between her legs. In the Bear’s second shot of the game at 15:12, sophomore Erin Connors received a pass from classmate Sasha Van Muyen from behind the net, and sent a one-timer past Mayr. Freshman Maggie Suprey also assisted on the goal, which followed a 5-on-3 penalty kill for RPI.

The Engineers split Brown’s lead in half with two minutes remaining in the frame, when sophomore Laura Gersten skated out of the RPI zone and made a long pass to sophomore Whitney Naslund as she rocketed out of the zone. Naslund, facing Brown goalie Nicole Stock alone, sent a low wrist shot through her five-hole, to bring the score to 2-1.

Neither team would score in the remainder of the game, although RPI would outshoot Brown 25-14 in the last 40 minutes of play. In a last attempt to score, the Engineers pulled Mayr with 1:31 remaining in the third, but were unable to convert on the man-advantage.

Each team had two 5-on-3 advantages throughout the game, although neither was able to capitalize on the opportunity. In this penalty-ridden game, which saw the Engineers with seven and the Bears with 10, only RPI was able to score with the man advantage.

The Bears’ win was their first at home this season, as they finished 10th in the league.

After the devastating loss to Brown, the Engineers came out strong on Saturday afternoon with playoff hopes still on the line. Halfway through the first, with a delayed penalty called on the Bulldogs, junior Nicole McDonald and senior Ellen McNamara fought for the loose puck in the slot, which jetted out to sophomore Allison Wright low in the right circle. Wright quickly executed a wrist shot to beat Yale freshman goaltender Jackee Snikeris on the glove side to score her seventh of the year. A few minutes later, RPI attempted to pad its lead as junior Jamie-Lynn Stewart tried to break into the Bulldogs’ zone, but was stopped by Yale’s defensive pairing. Naslund would make her own effort, drawing a Yale penalty in the process on which the Engineers were unable to convert. Rensselaer’s best endeavor came when senior Julie Aho blasted a wrist shot on net whilst on the power play, only to have it snatched by Snikeris. Senior Brooke Thompson would also try to add an insurance goal late in the period, but was denied on a 2-on-1.

Within the opening minute of the second, Yale came back to tie it up. Junior Sarah Tittman deflected a slap shot by sophomore defenseman Berit Johnson to give her a team-leading 12th goal of the season. Fellow junior Maggie Westfal also assisted on the tally. The Bulldogs would take advantage of a penalty on RPI junior defenseman Melissa Boik to take lead of the game at 6:40. Junior Crysti Howser won the faceoff in RPI’s zone back to Alyssa Clarke, whose goal would bring the score to 2-1. With seconds remaining in the period, Aho made another attempt at a goal, this time short-handed, but was unable to score.

Yale showed no signs of giving up entering the third period. Almost mirroring the previous goal, junior Danielle Kozlowski won the faceoff back to freshman Samantha MacLean, whose slap shot deflected off of an RPI defenseman past Mayr to bring Yale’s lead to 3-1.

With playoff hopes still strong, the Engineers played a close-fought final 20 minutes. At 11:31, Gersten brought Rensselaer back into the game, and dropped Yale’s lead in half with an unassisted goal, her fifth of the season. Even with this last-minute drive to the finish, RPI was unable to tie the game up, despite numerous attempts by sophomore Laura Gersten, McDonald, and sophomore Allison Weidner, and the advantage of the extra skater for the remaining 1:38 of the game.

Mayr made 31 saves on the night, while game victor Snikeris made 17.