Women’s hockey experienced a successful opening weekend, kicking off their Division III ECAC East schedule with a weekend set versus the Southern Maine Huskies.
RPI started the weekend with an exciting comeback Friday night. The Engineers netted two goals in the third period and scored the overtime winner to take the game 5-4.
Southern Maine started the weekend’s scoring when Holly Manning burned Engineer goalie Julie Vallarelli 5:26 into the game off of a feed from Katie True. RPI struck back quickly and tied the game just 58 seconds later, when Christina Jankowski scored, assisted by Meredith Langille and Christin Sauca.
The scoring settled down until the second period, when a flurry of Husky goals put Southern Maine up 4-1. Five minutes later, Husky forward Amy Matuewezski took a penalty for high-sticking, and the Engineers made the power play shine. Freshman Kari Rabatin scored with help from Lane Dielwart to put the game within two goals at 4-2. Despite three more Southern Maine penalties, RPI could not find the net for the rest of the second period.
The third period was when RPI really turned up the heat. With just over 13 minutes to go, Sauca fired a shot past Southern Maine’s goalie to put the game within one. With less than three minutes to go, Katie Woodward tied up the game, assisted by Rabatin and Sauca. Newcomer Rabatin tallied the game winner exactly one minute into overtime, on a great individual effort.
The Engineers hoped to carry their momentum from Friday’s win into Saturday’s game again against Southern Maine. The game started slowly, with neither team mustering up a good enough scoring chance to get on the board. RPI came out of the locker room with speed and energy, and Rabatin scored her third goal of the weekend just 29 seconds into the second period. The Engineers’ power play squad again found the net with less than six minutes to go in the period, this time Woodward from Deanna Doughery. Southern Maine shaved the deficit back to one goal with just less than two minutes left in the second period, but RPI slammed the door shut with a Julie Welte goal at 5:57 in the third.
RPI tallied four conference points in the opening weekend of ECAC East play, and jumped out to an early lead. The Engineers are now 2-1-0, and the Huskies are 0-2-0. Next weekend, the Engineers will travel to non-conference Boston College, and come home to take on St. Michael’s on November 22 and November 23.
