No. 10 Women's Hockey Clinches Third Seed with Win in Regular-Season Finale

Saturday, February 23

Hamilton, N.Y.

4:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Colgate

No. 10 Women's Hockey Clinches Third Seed with Win in Regular-Season Finale

2/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

Box Score

HAMILTON, N.Y. - The 10th-ranked Dartmouth women's hockey team got two goals from junior Maggie Kennedy (West Hartford, Conn.) and swept its final weekend series of the season with a 4-1 win over Colgate to clinch the third seed in the upcoming first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament.

Dartmouth clinched the third spot thanks to a win and a 2-1 victory from Princeton over Clarkson.

Kennedy led the Big Green with two goals, while classmate Shannon Bowman (Leamington, Ont.) posted two points with a goal and an assist. Sophomore Sarah Parsons (Dover, Mass.) collected two points for the seventh time this season with two helpers.

In the opening period, Dartmouth was outshot 8-6 by the Raiders and Colgate was able to draw two penalties from the Big Green, but they couild not put the puck in the net. Luckily for Dartmouth, the two pucks that eluded junior netminder Carli Clemis (Taber, Atla.), in the first period, clanged off the pipe to keep the game scoreless.

Dartmouth (16-7-6, 13-5-4 ECAC Hockey) had its first opportunity on the man advantage at the end of the first, but could only manage one shot on net as the power play came to end 21 seconds into the second period.

The Big Green came out in the second period and pressured the Colgate defense and it paid off as freshman Amanda Trunzo (Andover, Minn.) netted her ninth of the season with 13:43 left in the period. Her and fellow freshman Larissa Roche (Thorhild, Alta.) combined for the second night in a row to give Dartmouth the 1-0 lead. Last night against Cornell, Roche netted her second of the season, while Trunzo added her fifth assist.

Colgate (12-15-5, 9-9-4 ECAC Hockey) got its third chance on the power play with 3:37 remaining in the second. The chance started off well for the Raiders as they were able to get two shots on Clemis, but she pushed aside both for two of her 11 saves in the second period.

Dartmouth was outshot by Colgate for the second-straight frame as the Raiders had an 11-7 advantage, but could not find the net.

The third period didn't start out well for the Big Green as Colgate was given its fourth chance with the extra skater, just seven seconds into the period. The Raiders did not put a shot on net and each shot they put towards the net was either blocked by the Big Green or missed its target.

Dartmouth returned the favor with its second opportunity on the power play, three minutes into the period, but just like Colgate, the Big Green fired all of its shots wide of the net.

Kennedy gave the Big Green some relief, netting her 14th goal of the season with 9:05 left on the clock in the final period. She hooked up with Bowman to push the lead to 2-0. For Kennedy, she extended her point streak to seven games, while Bowman has posted a point in four-straight.

The Raiders cut the lead to 2-1 with 4:39 left in the game as Sam Hunt tallied her 19th goal of the season and kept Dartmouth from its fifth shutout of the year.

Colgate's momentum didn't last long as Bowman netted her first of the night and seventh of the season, 27 seconds after the Raiders cut it to one. The assist was credited to Parsons, who extended her point streak to eight games.

The Big Green increased its lead to 4-1 in the final minutes as Kennedy potted an empty netter for her second of the night and she recorded her 10th multi-point game of the season.

Clemis was brillant in net for the second-straight night with 28 stops, including 11 in the second period, and for the 19th time this year she has made 20-plus saves. Colgate netminder Lisa Plenderleith pushed aside 23 shots with 11 of them coming in the final period.

Dartmouth will be making its 17th straight ECAC postseason appearance as the Big Green will be facing these same Raiders in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament in a best-of-three series, starting Friday, February 28th, at 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena.