This weekend, the women鈥檚 ice hockey team (11-15-3, 7-12-3 ECAC) played their final matches of the regular season, facing off against No. 6 Cornell (21-6-1, 16-5-0 ECAC) and No. 5 Colgate (27-6-1, 18-4-0 ECAC). Bruno fell 1-2 to the Big Red in sudden death Friday night, then lost 0-6 to the Raiders on Saturday.
Defensive resilience defined the two-game homestand, as each ranked opponent recorded more than double the number of shots on goal than Brown did. These barrages of offense spurred Bruno goalie Kaley Doyle 鈥�24 to a career performance against Cornell. She denied 50 of the 52 shots on goal 鈥� a .962 save percentage.
Doyle credited her achievement to the forward line and the defense homogenizing into one unit. 鈥淭his game was just blocking shots. I don't think they got a chance to get the puck through a lot on the power plays,鈥� she said.鈥淚 thought we did a really good job taking away their lanes. And even when I did get shots there, (my teammates) let me see them (to control) the rebounds.鈥�
After guarding their way to a 0-0 scoreline in the first period, Bruno found offensive footing in the second. With a 5-4 advantage at 9:56, defensive player Meadow Carman 鈥�24 shot at the Big Red goal from the half ice. Forward Ava Decoste 鈥�27 corralled the rebound off a ricochet in the congested lane and passed to Anna Gallagher 鈥�24 diving in from the right wing, who slotted the puck in the back of the net. This was Gallagher鈥檚 first goal of the season and Decoste鈥檚 fourth assist in the past two weeks.
Cornell tried to even the score by infiltrating the home defense from the wings and being more physical, committing four penalties in 11 minutes during the second and third periods.
鈥淚 thought the physicality got a little out of control today on the side of our opponent, but I think we responded well.鈥� said Bruno Head Coach Melanie Ruzzi, 鈥淲e played clean (but) we're always ready to play physical (to) protect ourselves.鈥�
The increased physicality resulted in more power plays for the home team 鈥� including a 5-on-3 late in the second period 鈥� but Brown failed to convert on the advantage. At 14:25 in the third period, after more than 23 minutes of back-and-forth, the Big Red launched the puck point-blank at the Bruno goal to make the game 1-1.
Cornell reinforced this offensive pressure through overtime, which caused Jade Iginla 鈥�26 to commit a crucial interference penalty that allowed a 4-3 skater advantage in favor of Cornell. Izzy Daniel of the Big Red soon scored the game-winning goal to hand Brown their eleventh loss against a ranked opponent this season.
Brown failed to recover their momentum against Colgate on Saturday. The Bears committing zero penalties and Doyle saving 34 shots on goal were not enough to stop five different skaters on the Raiders to score in a lopsided 6-0 win, with three of those goals registered in the opening period.
The Bears will play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at home in the opening round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference next Saturday.
