RPI women’s hockey put up a good fight against nationally-ranked Mercyhurst College this past weekend, but it wasn’t enough to put a pair of wins on the board. In two closely scoring battles, the Engineers lost by a margin of 2-1 on Friday evening, and by a score of 4-1 on Saturday. Mercyhurst, ranked ninth in the polls, is now 3-1 on the year, while RPI falls to 1-4.
“I thought the two games against Mercyhurst were the best games we’ve played so far this year,” said Head Coach John Burke. “Although we didn’t achieve the results we were looking for, we were able to generate a lot of offensive opportunities and played a sound game against a top-ranked opponent.”
The Lakers took Friday’s match in the final three minutes of play, capitalizing on RPI’s sixth penalty of the game to add a power play tally to the board for the win. Senior forward Valeria Chouinard received a pass from sophomore Vicki Bendus and sent the shot past Engineers goalkeep sophomore Sonja van der Bliek for the point. Lakers freshman Bailey Bram also assisted on the goal.
Despite the eventual outcome, the Engineers placed first on the scoreboard a little over three minutes into the first frame. Junior center Whitney Naslund sent a pass over to winger junior Allysen Weidner, who lifted a quick shot over the glove side of freshman goaltender Hillary Pattenden.
The Engineers faced many additional scoring chances, but were simply unable to place the puck in the net for the remainder of the game. In net, van der Bliek had a strong showing, stopping all five shots she faced in the first.
Mercyhurst came back to tie it up in the second period, as senior Hayley McMeekin added a power play goal of her own at 14:37. Bram grabbed the loose puck on the left side of van der Bliek and camped out behind the net before placing the perfect pass to McMeekin, who was sitting on the lower right circle.
With 55 seconds left in the game, the Engineers pulled van der Bliek for the extra skater, but were unable to convert on the play to send the game into extra minutes.
Van der Bliek finished the evening with 24 saves, while Pattenden stopped 17 shots on the night.
“There were a lot of penalties on the night, but they were good penalties to take,” said Burke. “Mercyhurst has a lot of skilled players making good plays on the power play; we just need to step up our work on the penalty kill.”
Keeping up with the same momentum from the previous evening, Mercyhurst put out a strong showing against the Engineers, tallying two goals in the first period and two more unanswered marks in the third.
McMeekin scored her second and third goals of the series to open up the first, at 6:42 and 9:30, respectively, for the 2-0 lead.
Rensselaer sophomore Kendra Dunlop added her own power play mark at 15:42 to bring the Engineers within one. Both Weidner and junior Laura Gersten assisted on the goal, which was Dunlop’s third of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Lakers freshman Kelley Steadman added Mercyhurst’s third goal of the game at 17:30 for the 3-1 lead. A mere 16 seconds later, sophomore Ashley Cockell added an empty net insurance goal for the win.
In both their second games of the weekend, van der Bliek blanked 24 shots on the night, while Pattenden made 29 saves in the win.
The Engineers will close out their series of non-conference play this weekend with a pair of games against the Niagara University Purple Eagles at the Houston Field House, before starting off ECAC action the following weekend. Friday’s game begins at 7 pm, while Saturday’s puck drop is at 4 pm. This is the first meeting between the teams since the 1998–99 season. “Niagara is another strong, non-conference opponent we’re facing. I think if we build off the momentum from this last weekend and keep that same intensity and focus, we’ll do well not only this weekend, but for the rest of the season to come,” said Burke.
