Sophomore Dominique Lozzi, last years NESCAC Rookie of the Year, led the women's hockey team to two wins this weekend and earned herself NESCAC women's hockey player of the week. Lozzi posted four goals and two assists as the Polar Bears defeated Connecticut College on Friday and Hamilton College on Saturday to improve their record to 3-2-1 (2-1-1 in NESCAC).
In a high-scoring affair at Hamilton (1-4-2, 1-3-2 NESCAC), the Bowdoin women pulled out a close 5-4 victory. Bowdoin jumped out to a dominating lead in the first two periods, going up 5-1 on Lozzi's two goals, as well as one goal apiece from first year Kayte Holtz, sophomore Shelagh Merrill and junior Jill Campbell.
Holtz's goal came early in the first period off a feed from Campbell that allowed her to get behind Hamilton's defense and score in a one-on-one situation with Hamilton goalie Leslie Ryder.
An additional Bowdoin goal was disallowed after an official ruled that the puck was kicked into goal. Lozzi then scored her first goal late in the first period on a power play lifting Bowdoin to a 2-0 lead. Hamilton responded with its own power play goal by Laura DiCarlo, who skated into the slot and ripped a shot by Bowdoin first year goalie Kayla Lessard.
The Polar Bears then rattled off three unanswered goals from Merrill, Campbell and Lozzi in the second period. Hamilton came storming back in the third period, scoring at 3:12, then followed that up with two power play goals, one at 7:53 and the other 24 seconds later on to shrink the gap to 5-4 with just over 11 minutes to play.
However, that Hamilton goal, scored on a rebound by Riley Smith who was lying flat on the ice, proved to be the final goal of the game. Hamilton came up just short despite pulling their goalie in the final minute and having a six on four advantage due to a slashing penalty. Lozzi's two goals increased her season goal total to five, second in the NESCAC.
The night before, in a game against Connecticut College (1-5-1, 1-4-1 NESCAC), Lozzi provided two goals and two assists in a 6-1 rout of the Camels. In the first period, Lozzi scored on a rebound and Holtz added another goal from the front of the goal to jump out to a 2-0 lead before Kelsey Kirker cut the Bowdoin lead in half from the front of the goal.
Following a scoreless second period, Bowdoin put the nails in the coffin with four more goals in the third period. The first came from first year Kim Tess-Wanat at 5:07 to regain a comfortable lead. From there, goals by first year Stephanie Ludy, Campbell and another from Lozzi, closed things out as Bowdoin won the first game on their trip.
The Polar Bears will play a rivalry game against Colby (1-2-3, 0-2-2 NESCAC) at Sidney J. Watson Arena on Friday, December 11 at 7:00 p.m. The annual Skate with Polar Bears event will be held December 13 at 12:15 p.m.