The Wesleyan women’s ice hockey team faced tough competition over the last few weeks, as they battled conference foes Bowdoin and Colby last weekend, losing to both Maine teams with by a score of 1-6 and 1-5 respectively. On Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Cards took on NESCAC and Connecticut rival the Trinity Bantams for the second time this season, falling to the eighth ranked team once again 1-6. The Cardinals will head into their last weekend of play with a conference record of 0-14-0, facing off against the Connecticut College Camels on Friday evening and the Hamilton College Continentals on Saturday afternoon.
In Friday’s game, things looked promising for Wes as they went up 1-0 to Bowdoin in the first period off a goal from Kelsey Muller ’13, assisted by Jill Reynolds ’12 and Kathleen Van Hise ’14. The Polar Bears only held a four shot differential in the first period. Despite that number increasing to 10 in the second, Wes only allowed two goals heading into the third, down 2-1. However, the Polar Bears came out fired up for the third period, increasing the shot differential to 13 and racking up four more goals. Bowdoin scored on two of their seven power plays, and Wesleyan went zero for six, leading to a 1-6 loss.
Against Colby on the following day, Wesleyan was defeated 1-5 with the scoring more evenly distributed throughout the three periods. The Cards jumped on the board first with an unassisted goal from Sena Ito ’11. But the Mules responded quickly, putting two goals of their own on the board towards the end of the first period, gaining a 2-1 lead. The Mules doubled their score in the second and added one more to end the game to come away with a 5-1 win. Three of Colby’s goals came by power play advantage, while Wes failed to score on four of its own power play opportunities.
On Tuesday, the Trinity Bantams increased their successive wins against Wesleyan to nine, pulling past the Cards with a 5-1 victory. Nine seconds into the game, Trinity netted its first goal after winning the faceoff. The Bantams increased their lead to 2-0 late in the first period right before Muller notched Wesleyan’s single goal of the contest. Muller dangled the puck left to right before sliding it right past Trinity’s starting goalie with a minute left in the first period. Throughout the contest, Trinity held a 39-6 edge in total shots, scoring on three more of those attempts to end the game with a 5-1 win. Wesleyan tender, Ashleigh Corvi ’13, finished the game with 34 saves, giving her a string of nine games in a row with at least 30 saves.
Hoping to snag at least one conference victory before the close of the season, the Cardinals will hit the road this weekend to take on Connecticut College on Friday evening and Hamilton College on Saturday.