Women's Hockey Suffers First Loss in ECAC Hockey to Saints, 2-0

Friday, November 18

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

ST. LAWRENCE

Women's Hockey Suffers First Loss in ECAC Hockey to Saints, 2-0

11/18/2011 9:27:00 PM | Women's Ice Hockey

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth women's hockey team suffered its first loss in ECAC Hockey on Friday night at Thompson Arena in a 2-0 loss to St. Lawrence. Despite holding a 38-18 advantage in shots, the Big Green could not find the back of the net and suffered the tough defeat. With the loss, the Big Green fell to 3-3-1 overall and 3-1-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Saints improved to 6-4-3 and 3-3-1 in the conference.

Through the first two periods neither team could find any groove offensively, and the two squads went in to the final frame with the game tied, 0-0. It stayed that away until 8:44 into the third. After receiving up passes from Karell Émard and Rylee Smith, Brooke Fernandez found herself at the top of the left circle with the puck, and two scrambling Dartmouth defensemen trying to stop the shot.

Fernandez stopped and fired the puck to the right side of the net that got through the defenders and sophomore goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft (Pittsburgh, Pa.). It marked the fifth goal of the season for Fernandez, the 10th assist for Emard and the eighth assist for Smith.

With time winding down in the third, Dartmouth pulled Holdcroft for the extra skater but the St. Lawrence defense held strong. Kelly Sabatine took the puck away from junior Sasha Nanji (Markham, Ontario) at center ice, and skated in undefended for the easy empty-net goal. It was the sixth goal of the season for Sabatine.

The Saints kept the game scoreless thanks to fantastic play from goaltender Carmen MacDonald. The first-year player stopped 38 shots for her first shutout of the season. Senior Kelly Foley (South Boston, Mass.) attempted the most shots against MacDonald with nine, but the goaltender was up for the challenge.

In the first period, both teams let the puck fly with the Big Green taking 14 shots and St. Lawrence firing eight. Dartmouth kept the aggressiveness up with 13 shots in the second, while the Saints took just four. In the third, St. Lawrence scored on two of its six shots and the Big Green took double-digit shots for the third straight period with 11.

It was a relatively clean game for both teams with only four penalties total in the contest. Each team received two in the second period, and neither was able to score on the ensuing power plays.

Holdcroft made 16 saves in the loss with the Big Green tallying 11 blocked shots. It marked the first time Dartmouth was shutout at home, since dropping a 4-0 decision against Quinnipiac on Feb. 4, 2011.

The Big Green look to turn things around when they host Clarkson on Saturday at 4 p.m.