Last weekend, riding high after a 1–0–1 series against No. 7 nationally ranked Hamilton, Wesleyan women’s hockey headed into their home series against Middlebury, ready to put on a show.

Wesleyan had not defeated No. 6 nationally ranked Middlebury since 2019—and before 2019, the Cards had never won a game against the Panthers. But despite those intimidating statistics, captain and forward Brigitte Goeler-Slough ’23 MA ’24 and her teammates were feeling cautiously optimistic coming into the matchup.

“We came into the game with a lot of confidence from our previous matchups,” Goeler-Slough wrote in an email to The Argus. “[We] also knew that it was going to be a tough weekend, and we would have to play well to have success against them, so we knew we just had to focus on sticking to our game and doing the little things right.”

As Goeler-Slough predicted, the first game against Middlebury was evenly matched. The Friday game remained scoreless through the beginning of the second period. In the seventh minute of the second period, captain and forward Christina Tournas ’25 dropped in a goal for Wesleyan, assisted by Goeler-Slough and captain and defender Sam DeLeo ’25. Middlebury quickly attempted a follow-up shot, but the puck was saved by goalie Rei Halloran ’23 MA ’24.

Then, in the middle of the second period, Wesleyan’s momentum ground to a halt. Panthers’ forward Zoe Pincelli suffered a head injury and was carried off the ice on a stretcher. Defender Jenna Stevens ’23 knew Pincelli from high school; she said the incident left the Cardinals shaken.

“[Pincelli’s] totally okay,” Stevens said. “As in, she didn’t need a stretcher; she just had a concussion. But we didn’t know that at the time. It was really weird. We were [at a] standstill for like, 20 minutes, and it was really hard to come back after that.”

After Pincelli was carried off, two second-period penalties—against Dylan Green ’26 and Aimee Seppenwolde ’26, respectively—gave Middlebury a couple of power play opportunities. The Cardinals were able to kill both power plays, but the Panthers finally scored on an even matchup in minute 17 of the second period.

Stevens said that she felt that Pincelli’s injury played a role in Middlebury’s ability to tie up the game.

“Everyone was really tentative,” Stevens said. “I think Middlebury kind of capitalized on that. They were kind of angry and mad.”

After a locker room pep talk from head coach Jodi McKenna, the Cards returned in the third period determined to hold off the Panthers. Neither team scored in the third, and the game moved into overtime with Wesleyan and Middlebury tied 1–1.

Unfortunately for the Cards, the Panthers began overtime with a power play, as Goeler-Slough had been called for body-checking at the end of regulation. Middlebury won the faceoff and attempted a shot on goal only 14 seconds into overtime, but Halloran made the save.

Goeler-Slough noted that despite the Cards’ player deficit, her teammates did not become discouraged.

“Starting off the overtime on the penalty kill was definitely tough,” Goeler-Slough wrote. “[B]ut we’ve had quite a bit of experience in overtime this season, including in shorthanded situations, so we still had a lot of confidence that we could pull out a win.”

Only 44 seconds after returning from the penalty box, Goeler-Slough ensured that her team did, indeed, pull out the win. Falling to her knees, she tipped in the final goal of the game, securing Wesleyan’s only win in the first game of a series this season.

Goeler-Slough credited her teammates with putting her in a position to win the game.

“The only reason we even got to that point was from the great penalty kill and some huge saves from [Halloran] at the start of overtime,” Goeler-Slough wrote. “And then it started with a great pass from [Tournas]…then after it hit the net just a mixture of joy and relief.”

Stevens said that she and her teammates were thrilled with the win, especially after struggling in the initial games of series throughout the season.

“Every time that we win, we have a win song that we always play,” Stevens said. “And I think we danced to it the whole three minutes. We’d usually end after like a minute or so. But it was just the whole way through. Everybody was happy, people were squirting their water bottles…. It might have been a little excessive, in the moment.”

The next day, however, it was back to business. The Cards headed into their second game against the Panthers hoping to make the most of the momentum from their Friday win. They started the afternoon by knocking in two first-period goals nearly back to back. Goeler-Slough—assisted by captain and defender Mairead Kennedy ’24 and Stevens—scored the first goal, and Green scored the second. The Red and Black cruised into the second period, up 2–0.

But a penalty on forward Shannon Burke ’25 halted the Cards’ run, allowing Middlebury to slide in a goal only 24 seconds into the power play. The Panthers managed to score another goal before the second period ran out, tying the game 2–2 for the last period of regulation.

Stevens said that even after the Cards lost their lead, they remained optimistic, determined to seal a historic sweep.

“Even though [Middlebury] scored two goals, it never really felt like the game was in their favor,” Stevens said. “It was still a pretty evenly matched game, or at least that’s what it felt like to me. I think that helped, too. Like it wasn’t a tide shifting for them all of a sudden.”

The third period remained scoreless until the last two minutes of regulation. Forward Caroline Kee ’26 grabbed a Panthers’ turnover and set Caroline Mezias ’25 up for the game-winning goal.

Stevens said that when the final buzzer went off, her teammates—who were by that point exhausted—still managed an enthusiastic celebration.

“When the last goal went in, I think it was loud for like, two minutes, which is so awesome,” Stevens said. “The last few minutes, sometimes I don’t remember it. I just remember the noise of what happened.”

When the weekend was over, the Cardinals had made history several times over. They swept Middlebury for the first time in program history and also notched their first sweep of a ranked opponent.

Goeler-Slough was encouraged by the back-to-back victories and the turning point they represented for the Red and Black.

“We’ve had some weekends this season where we’ve struggled with maintaining our consistency throughout both games of the weekend,” Goeler-Slough wrote. “So being able to come away with a sweep was huge for us, and to have it against a nationally ranked team made it even better.”

On Monday, only one week after Halloran was named NESCAC Player of the Week following her first shutout of the season against Hamilton, Goeler-Slough also received the accolade. It was the first time in team history that Wesleyan women’s hockey players won the honor in consecutive weeks.

Halloran said that winning alongside fellow grad student Goeler-Slough meant a lot to her.

“I think we’re both super excited to be able to have this season together,” Halloran said. “Especially because it’s kind of a historic season for our team.”

This weekend, Wesleyan will play an away series against No. 12 nationally ranked Colby. It will be another tough matchup, but Stevens said the Cards are using their past few successful weekends as fuel for the upcoming game. 

“[We’re] not like, ‘oh, we’ve won all these games, we have to keep doing it,’” Stevens said. “It’s more like, ‘we won all these games; we can win this one, too.’ Which I think is a great mindset to have.” 

Audrey Nelson can be reached at aanelson@wesleyan.edu.