Despite dropping two conference games to Bowdoin this past weekend, the women’s hockey team is very much alive in the playoff race.

The Polar Bears, ranked 10th nationally, arrived in Middletown on Friday looking to lock up second place in the NESCAC. Bowdoin’s NESCAC leading offense (81 goals to Wesleyan’s 38) needed only two and a half minutes to light the lamp, scoring just after a face-off in the attacking zone.

Goalie Rachel Stemerman ’09, however, made 23 saves in the period to keep the score 1-0. The Polar Bears scored again 6:20 into the second, nine seconds after the end of a Wesleyan power play.

The Cardinals had a pair of scoring chances later in the period, but errant passes nullified both and kept the score 2-0 heading into the third. Bowdoin made it 3-0 halfway through the final period on a power-play goal.

Jessica Fischer ’08 scored her seventh goal with 3:40 remaining in the game to avoid the shutout, but the Polar Bears would add one more goal with 1:18 left. Stemerman stopped the initial shot but failed to control the rebound, and the Polar Bears put it in to make it a 4-1 defeat of Wesleyan.

“We played hard but they really shut us down on our break out,” said Megan Willey ’07. “We played really well but we couldn’t really break out and get our shots off.”

Saturday was the Cardinals’ final home game, but the 7-2 loss was not the way the team’s seniors wanted to end their careers in Spurrier-Snyder Rink.

“It was a really emotional game for everybody, but particularly for the class of ’07,” Willey said. “But we’ll move on and try to play our best hockey next weekend.”

Bowdoin jumped on the board early, scoring 3:50 into the game.

Fischer, however, scored her team leading eighth goal exactly six minutes later to tie the game, 1-1. It was Fischer’s team-leading fourth power-play goal, but only the Cardinals’ 10th of the season. Bowdoin got a power play of its own with 6:32 remaining, and the Polar Bears capitalized 30 seconds later for a 2-1 lead.

Bowdoin then ripped off three goals in a 7:20 span in the second to run its lead up to 5-1. The Polar Bears increased their lead to 6-1 5:43 into the third before Hannah Jackson ’09 stopped the bleeding two minutes later.

“We were disappointed because we wanted to keep down the number of goals scored against us,” said Jaime Wendel ’07. “Our playoff hopes could come down to goals against, but unfortunately we didn’t help ourselves in that department.”

Jackson was whistled for checking halfway through the period, and Bowdoin scored 11 seconds into the ensuing power play, for the final goal.

Stemerman, however, again proved to be a bright spot for the Cardinals, making 94 saves in the series to increase her season total to 548, second in the NESCAC.

Thirty-six faceoffs were conducted in the Cardinals’ defensive zone during Saturday’s game, and Stemerman’s play was crucial to ensuring that the loss was not even worse. In a not-so-bright spot, Bowdoin out-shot Wesleyan 105-39 in the two games. The Cardinals have now been out-shot by their opponents 838-460 on the season. Wesleyan also went 1-10 on the power play over the weekend and has only scored on a NESCAC-worst 9.4 percent of its power plays this season (10-106).

Wesleyan fell to 4-14-4 with the weekend’s losses and currently holds a 2-8-4 record in NESCAC play. The Cardinals are tied with Trinity (4-10-0 NESCAC) for seventh place and for the final playoff spot. The two teams split the regular season series; if they finish the season tied, the team with more overall wins will take the tiebreaker.

The Bantams travel to first-place Middlebury (12-0-2 NESCAC) and sixth-place Williams (3-7-4 NESCAC) this weekend, while Wesleyan travels to fifth-place Colby (4-7-3 NESCAC) for two games.

The Cardinals control their own destiny, as even if Trinity wins both of its games they can still make the playoffs. The Mules, however, will also be fighting for their playoff lives as they have not yet clinched a playoff spot. Wesleyan has not won in Waterville, ME since the 2003-2004 season.

Friday’s contest will start at 7 p.m., while Saturday’s regular season finale begins at 3 p.m.