The Rensselaer women’s hockey team took three of four games over the winter break, sweeping the Southern Maine Huskies December 6 and 7, and splitting with the New England College Pilgrims this past weekend.

The Engineer’s first victory over Southern Maine came on the wing of the line of Julie Aho, Meredith Langille, and Julie Welte. The line was on the ice for all four Engineer goals.

Welte tallied the first goal of the game at 7:23 with help from Kari Rabatin and Aho. Allyn Cooper took an interference penalty, and the Southern Maine power play took advantage. Jessica Lortie pushed a puck past RPI’s Julie Vallarelli with help from teammates Rachael Wollstadt and Kerry Leonard.

Rensselaer took the lead again in the first period, with Welte finding the net again, this time with assists from Lane Dielwart and Aho.

The Engineers came out strongly in the second period, with Aho scoring 18 seconds after the break. Linemates Welte and Langille each tallied assists on the third RPI goal. Rensselaer pushed the lead to three goals at 18:35, when Dielwart scored off a feed from Langille and Sondra Sherman.

Southern Maine mounted a comeback in the third period, scoring two unanswered goals at 7:30 and 8:38. The Engineers held off the Huskies for the remainder of the third and took the first game 4-3.

The second game was controlled by Rensselaer’s goaltender Rosina Schiff. Schiff stopped 21 of 22 Husky shots, and Welte and Sarah Daniel scored to lead the Engineers to a 2-1 victory.

After a long break, the Engineers traveled to the New England College to take on the Pilgrims. Schiff was again the star of the game on Friday, stopping all 23 shots on goal that the Pilgrims fired.

The Engineer power play was firing on all cylinders, scoring on three of six chances. Welte scored her 11th and 12th goals on the season during the first five minutes of the second period.

Rensselaer scored two more power play goals in the third period. Less than two minutes into the third period, Allyn Cooper tallied her first goal of the year with helpers from Paula Durham and Rabatin. Langille scored in the third with assists coming from Aho and Rabatin, to make Rensselaer 2-2 on the power play.

In second game of the weekend the Pilgrims found a way to stifle the Engineer power play; they simply did not take penalties. Without the power plays, the RPI offense could not find the net.

The first period saw the teams skate very evenly, with the Engineers killing off a pair of Rabatin penalties.

In the second period, the Pilgrims drew first blood as New England College’s Casey Greenmore tallied her first goal of the season at the 11:13 mark.

New England stretched the lead to two goals 7:56 into the third period. The Engineers tried to cut the lead, but after pulling Schiff, Pilgrim Kate Sweeney shot a puck into the gaping net to seal the game at 3-0.

Aho currently leads the team with 11 goals and 10 assists. Welte and Langille are second and third on the team in scoring, with 20 and 19 points respectively.

The Engineers are now tied for the lead in the ECAC Division III East with RIT. The Engineers and the Tigers each have 12 points, but the Tigers are undefeated in conference play. RIT will travel to RPI to face the Engineers on January 23 and 24.

Rensselaer will travel to Holy Cross next weekend; Friday night’s game is at 7 pm while Saturday’s contest is at 3 pm.