Colby Advances Past Bowdoin 2-1 in Women's Ice Hockey Quarterfinals
Courtesy Colby Sports Information
WATERVILLE, Maine - Lacey Brown (Freeport, Maine) made 30 saves and Colby seniors Becky Julian (South Windsor, Conn.) and Colette Finley (St. Paul, Minn.) had goals as the fourth-seeded Mules hung on for a 2-1 win over Bowdoin College in a NESCAC quarterfinal game Saturday at Alfond Rink.
The Mules move to 12-10-3 overall and Colby’s eight seniors will play in their third NESCAC Final Four in the past four years. Colby made the league title game last year before falling to Amherst College. Bowdoin, the fifth seed, finishes the season at 11-11-1 and had its eight-game winning streak snapped. Colby will not know its semifinal opponent until Amherst and Hamilton College play a late game Saturday.
Brown, a senior, earned her 27th career victory and had more than 50 minutes of shutout goaltending before the Polar Bears cut the lead in half in the final 10 minutes. Brown had 12 saves in the first period when the two teams battled to a scoreless tie and added 10 more in the crucial third period with the Polar Bears pushing for the equalizer.
Julian scored her 20th goal of the season and her 66th of her career at 11:27 of the second period off an assist from Stephanie Scarpato (Osterville, Mass.) on the power play. Scarpato had been pulled down in Colby’s zone in drawing the penalty. She then was to the left of Bowdoin goalie Sage Santangelo (Laporte, Colo.) and fed a pass to Julian, who one-timed a shot. Julian has 66 goals and 45 assists for 111 career points, while Scarpato picked up her 30th career assist in two years at Colby.
The Mules got the insurance goal they would need when Finley scored her seventh goal of the season just 1:59 into the third period. Marissa Simmons (Chestnut Hill, Mass.) and Meryl Poulin (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) had assists on the goal. Finley got her goal off a rebound that Santangelo had deflected to her right.
Bowdoin refused to give up and scored with 8:20 left in the game on a goal by Lindsay McNamara (Milton, Mass.), who knocked in shot in a wild scramble in front of the net. McNamara, a senior, got her seventh goal of the season and the 21st of her career off assists from Katie Herter (Topsfield, Mass.) and Jill Campbell (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia).
The Polar Bears pulled Santangelo with 1:22 to go, but neither team could manage a goal the rest of the way.
Santangelo, a first-year goalie,
finished with 18 stops for Bowdoin.
