EAST BOSTON – Five unanswered goals by Wesleyan proved too much for Suffolk women's hockey as the Rams fell in the opener of a home-and-home series with the Cardinals Saturday night at Louis E. Porazzo Memorial Rink.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 1 | Wesleyan 5
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-5-2) | Wesleyan (2-2-0)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Nearly eight minutes were removed from the clock in the first frame without a whistle.
The Rams first shot of the day came off Madison Ricardo's stick on a breakaway, but the shot met Sam Smith's pads. On the other end of the ice, the blue-and-gold's defense backed up Kristen Caporusso, blocking the first three Cardinals attempts, before the junior netminder picked up Chiara Christie's shot at the 7:55 minute mark for the first whistle of the day.
From there, each team had a handful of chances, but neither was able to figure out the opposing goalies and the teams headed into the first intermission with zeros on the scoreboard.
In a hectic middle period with four goals and six penalties Suffolk got the action going at the midway point. Shana Cote skated towards the goalie's right, dropped the puck behind her for Maddy Burton, who flipped it over Smith's left shoulder for the one-goal edge at the 10:37 minute mark. Jesse Kennedy helped set up the two-on-one.
Three minutes later Wesleyan evened the score as Sophia Marra put away a feed from Sydnee Goyer and Ally Detre.
The Rams got in penalty trouble over the final five minutes and the Cardinals capitalized. The visitors took the edge five seconds after their own penalty expired. As Goyer left the box after being whistled for slashing the extra Allie Damren burst into the zone and Bridget Cornell found her teammate from behind the net. Damren's first goal of the season gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Wesleyan stretched the margin to two 2:54 later. The Cardinals used another extra skater to their benefit, this time a delayed penalty saw Smith head to the bench and another skater head into Suffolk's offensive zone. Once again Damren had a hand in the marker as she fired from just outside the right face-off dot. Her attempt tipped off Audrey McMahon's stick past Caporusso to give the guest a 3-1 cushion with 1:03 remaining in the second period.
Special teams were once again put to the test in the third period as Haley Poloskey was sent to the box for roughing on the same play that Caroline Jenkins was called for hooking. The Cardinals gained momentum on the four-on-four as it potted two more pucks over a 35-second span to widen the distance to 5-1 in their favor. Alicia Nickolenko scored first with help from Rachel Ziff and Cornell netted the fifth goal of the night.
NETMINDER NOTES
- Caporusso registered 17 saves to.
- Julia McLellan recorded seven stops over 8:21 of relief.
- Sam Smith moved to 2-0-0 on the year behind a 20-save effort.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Burton potted Suffolk's lone goal with Cote and Kennedy each tallying one assist.
- Wesleyan outshot the Rams, 29-21, while the blue-and-gold held the edge in the face-off battle, 26-24.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk and Wesleyan met for the first time.
POST-GAME PIC
COMING UP
Suffolk concludes the home-and-home series with the Cardinals tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 1 when it heads to Middletown, Connecticut for a 4:30 p.m. puck drop.
