HAMILTON – The No. 5 Colgate women's hockey team put on an offensive show in the third period to defeat No. 10 Quinnipiac 4-0, handing the Bobcats their first loss of the season Saturday evening at the Class of 1965 Arena in the ECAC Opener.
Junior
Noemi Neubauerova led the team with two goals while sophomore
Darcie Lappan notched her first goal of the season to give the Bobcats their first loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game was scoreless throughout the first period, even though both teams had multiple looks. In the final minute of the first period, Colgate had three solid attempts to score, but were unable to find the back of the net. The Raiders finished the period with eight shots on goal, while the Bobcats had five.
Colgate started to pressure Quinnipiac offensively to start the second period, having three shots on goal within the first four minutes. As the Raiders faced a 5-on-3 penalty kill, the defense shined to hold Quinnipiac scoreless to keep the game at 0-0.
After being scoreless the entirety of the game, Neubauerova scored her fourth goal of the season off assists from
Tanner Gates and
Taylor Kirwan at the 15:11 mark to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.
The Raiders finished the second period with the 1-0 lead, despite the Bobcats outshooting them 12-8 in the period.
Colgate maintained the 1-0 lead in the third period until they began to dominate offensively, scoring two goals in less than two minutes to take a 3-0 lead with 4:32 remaining in the game.
The first goal of the period came off a pass from
Kaitlyn O'Donohoe to
Danielle Serdachny who scored from the Clarkson crease to make the score 2-0.
Not even two minutes later, Neubauerova scored her second goal of the game after she snuck up from behind the goal and shot it into the lower left part of the net to give Colgate a commanding 3-0 lead with just 4:32 remaining.
With less than two minutes left in the game, the Bobcats pulled their goalie, which led sophomore
Darcie Lappan scoring the Raiders' fourth goal of the game. The goal, which was Lappan's first of the year, gave the Raiders the 4-0 lead.
COLGATE SCORING PLAYS
• Period 2 | 15:11 – After getting a pass from junior
Tanner Gates, classmate
Taylor Kirwan passed to junior
Noemi Neubauerova who skated up the right side and snuck a shot in past the toe of the netminder.
• Period 3 | 13:34 –
Kaitlyn O'Donohoe skated down low in the slot before passing to
Danielle Serdachny at the top of the crease who scored after a shot to the top shelf of the net.
• Period 3 | 15:28 – After a wraparound by
Rosy Demers to pass out front to
Kalty Kaltounkova, Neubauerova snuck the shot into a low corner of the net after receiving the puck off a deflected skate.
• Period 3 | 17:52 – After a chip ahead by Serdachny,
Darcie Lappan went on to score from center ice on the empty net.
STATISTICAL STANDOUTS
• With her two-goal performance, Neubauerova is now on a four-game point streak in which she's posted four goals and two assists.
• First-year
Kayle Osborne recorded her first career shutout behind 21 saves, including a game-high of 12 in the second period.
• With an apple on the game-winner, Gates extends to a five-game point streak, recording one assist in each of the last five games.
• Two Raiders had multi-point nights as Neubauerova finished with two goals and Serdachny recorded two points as she finished the game with one goal and one assist.
• Sophomore
Kaitlyn O'Donohoe led the Raiders in shots with four, while six different Raiders recorded a blocked shot.
• The Raiders' four goals are the most goals scored this season.
• As Quinnipiac went 0-for-4 on the power play, the Raiders held their opponent scoreless with the man advantage for the fifth time this season.
THE BOTTOM LINE
• Colgate 4, Quinnipiac 0
RECORD UPDATES
• Colgate holds a 4-1-1 record and opens with 1-0-0 mark in ECAC Hockey action.
• Quinnipiac is now 3-1-0 and begins ECAC play 0-1-0.
HEAD COACH GREG FARGO'S TAKE
"Our players were eager to get back to playing after an extended holiday break. By the third period we found another gear and played the way we want to play. We stacked some good shifts together and made plays. We're fun to watch when we're connected and playing together like that. Those plays, our PK, coming up with 50/50 pucks, they all bring energy to the team. Quinnipiac took the first two periods tonight - they were ready and came at us hard.
"Tomorrow's game will be another big challenge. A good opportunity for us to come out stronger and keep getting better."
UP NEXT
Colgate wraps up its two-game series against Quinnipiac tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Class of 1965 Arena.
FOLLOW THE RAIDERS
For more information on the Colgate women's hockey program, follow the Raiders on Twitter @ColgateWIH and Instagram at colgatewih.
