Led by sophomore forward Jamie-Lynn Stewart, the RPI women’s hockey team picked up a win in its final weekend of non-conference play, splitting the series with Detroit’s Wayne State University.
Stewart was tabbed by the ECAC Hockey League as the Player of the Week for her two goals and three assists over the weekend. She is third in the ECACHL with seven points off four goals and three assists.
Joining Stewart is classmate Ashley Mayr, who earned a spot on the weekly Honor Roll. Mayr made 46 saves in the two games and let in a single goal in Friday night’s victory. Mayr already has six games of experience this year, which is just one less than she had all of last season. Head Coach John Burke and the team lauded her on the weekend. “Ashley kept us in the game,” Burke said after Saturday’s match.
“Not only did she do a really good job at making the first save,” explained second-year captain Sarah Daniel, “but also being ready for the rebounds because Wayne State was all over the rebounds; she did a good job covering and getting ready for the next shot.”
Friday’s game saw the Warriors win the painstaking race to the board scoring 11 full minutes into the second period on a power play goal. It didn’t take long for sophomore Nicole McDonald to answer when Stewart found her with a pass, and McDonald beat netminder Valery Turcotte to tie it at one-a-piece.
Halfway through the third, Stewart again found a playmaker, this time freshman Allysen Weidner, who made the shot that turned out to be the game winner. Sophomore Mel Guillemette was also in on the assist, as she fed the puck to Stewart.
Stewart finally had a goal of her own with one second left in the game after Wayne State pulled its goalie to try and make something happen in the last desperate minute of play.
“Yesterday’s win was huge,” said Daniel, “It brought us all together finally. We’re starting to click, our passes are getting there, our lines are starting to come together more. I think we just need to tighten up our game a little more, [act] a little stronger on the puck, and support each other a little more on the ice.”
The next afternoon, the Warriors would not need to resort to extreme measures, as they won 2:38 into the sudden-death overtime with a goal by Melissa Boal, following the 2-2 tie game at the end of regulation time. After the loss, McDonald wasn’t too concerned. “We would have liked a win here, but it’s a good step forward to our season play next weekend,” she said.
In addition to her game-deciding goal, Boal had also started off the scoring in Saturday’s game just five minutes into the contest. In a set characteristic of last season, Rensselaer got moving after this motivation was up on the board and scored twice before the period was done. “We played very well; we’re very resilient; we got down—we battled back,” said Burke of his Engineers.
Forward McDonald scored first for RPI. “It was a line goal, Wright took it down the side and she was aiming for [Stewart] … somehow it popped right out and I was standing there and I was the lucky one to put it in—so it was definitely a line goal,” explained McDonald.
Stewart finished off her weekend with a power play goal assisted by McDonald and freshman Allison Wright. “The freshmen have jumped in, they’ve taken their positions, they know what they’re suppose to be doing,” said McDonald, “they’re all mixed within lines, so everyone is adjusting with them—and they’re doing great.”
“We’re getting our shots on net, we’re actually scoring on them now,” McDonald added. “All the lines are clicking on the ice now, the passes are on the tape, communicating’s going on, and our systems are all working. We’ve been working really hard in practice to get our systems perfected.”
The second period was scoreless and sloppy. “The puck was bouncing a lot for both teams, it was just one of those games,” said Burke afterwards.
“It’s all coming together,” echoed Daniel, who knows next weekend’s match-ups make for, “a tough start for the season.” She knows there are many reasons to start the season against the best—“It’ll make sure that when we start league play we know that we’re focused on it, because we can’t take a game lightly against Harvard or Dartmouth or we’ll get killed.”
“We’re excited to get into the league and see how we match up against some of the best teams in the country. It’s going to be another great opportunity for us,” agreed Burke.
The Olympians and rankings of other teams do little to intimidate the Engineers; “We’re going in expecting to win just like every other game,” he said. “It’s a new season; this’ll be our first league contest in the school’s history for women’s hockey, so we’re excited to go in and play.”
