The women’s hockey team won its first game in three weeks, beating the Trinity Bantams 6-5 in Hartford. The Polar Bears then fell to the Bantams the following day in a 2-0 shutout. Bowdoin is now ranked fourth in the NESCAC at 9-7-4 overall (5-5-2 NESCAC), while Trinity is ranked sixth, 12-6-1 overall (5-6-1 NESCAC).
“[Friday] was a very high-paced, fast game for us,” said captain Colleen Finnerty ’15. “We won it in the last second of the game, which is just very, very exciting.”
The two teams exchanged the lead over the first and second periods. Bowdoin pulled ahead 2-1 after the first period, but surrendered two goals to Trinity by the end of the second. The Polar Bears came back to score three times within the first 10 minutes of the third period, with goals from Finnerty, Rachel Kennedy ’16 and Miranda Bell ’18.
“Both teams have pretty strong offenses, so [we thought there was] a chance it [would] be a high scoring game,” said Head Coach Marissa O’Neil. “There were a couple lead changes and a lot of momentum shifts. Then going into the third period, we were down a goal and we just came out really focused.”
The team kept up its momentum throughout most of the remainder of the third period and held a 5-3 lead with two minutes left in the game. After the Trinity goaltender came out of net to give her team an extra player, the Bantams scored two goals to tie the game at five with 34 seconds left.
“[Ariana Bourque ’16 and I] were just throwing the puck on net, trying to create the last opportunity we could before it went into overtime,” said Finnerty. “When the puck ended up squirting free off the goalie, I just popped it right in…and looked at the clock and saw that it was 0.8 seconds.”
Up until this win, Bowdoin had not scored six goals in a game since playing Colby in November.
“This has kind of been the story of our team that no matter what the score is, we are playing until the buzzer,” said O’Neil. “There is no giving up with this group and I think that they’ve certainly shown that resiliency throughout the course of the year.”
With a string of bad results, January was “a grind” for the Polar Bears who are hoping the win against Trinity propels them toward a strong finish to the season, according to Finnerty.
“[This win] was just kind of a reminder for the team that hey we can do this, we know how to do this, we do this every day in practice, now just go out there and do it for the 120 minutes we play every weekend,” said Finnerty.
Even though Bowdoin lost to Trinity 2-0 Saturday night, the team held the Bantams off until the second period when they scored both goals.
The team was especially excited to play since Trinity’s assistant coach, Dominique Lozzi ’12, used to play for Bowdoin.
“She was my linemate freshman year and she was senior captain,” said Finnerty. “She’s obviously getting her team amped to play Bowdoin, but at the same time we’re over here [knowing] she’s an alum…coaching another team that we know she didn’t like while she was here. So we [have to] show her Bowdoin’s better.”
Finnerty predicts that this weekend—the team’s Senior Weekend—will be “emotionally charged.” Bowdoin hosts Hamilton before traveling to Amherst next weekend for its final set of regular season games.
The Polar Bears are still capable of securing a top-four spot and hosting a NESCAC quarterfinal, but the playoff race is tight and they will not likely know their seed until the regular season is over.
“Last year, it came down to not only our last game, but [also]…the results from other teams,” said O’Neil. “We’re still in control of our own destiny in terms of where we’re going in the playoffs.”
The team has been primarily working on scoring, situation plays and transitional plays in preparation for this weekend’s games, scheduled for Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in Watson Arena.
“We aren’t trying to look ahead too much. We know what each game means, but we’re happy with what we’ve been able to accomplish,” said O’Neil. “We also know there’s still a lot out there that we are looking to strive towards and are certainly capable of doing that. It’s just a matter of getting it all together.”