The women's ice hockey team shut out Amherst for 55 minutes and 33 seconds at Middlebury on Saturday, winning 3-1 and earning their first berth to the NESCAC championship game in eight years.
Defender Madeline Lane '14 opened up the Polar Bears' scoring with only her third goal of the season six minutes into the first frame.
The Polar Bears did not score again until halfway through the final period, when captain Stephanie Ludy '13 jammed the puck home on an assist from Kenzie Novak '13 and Lane. With less than a minute left in the game (and while down a player after Maura Allen '14 was penalized), NESCAC Rookie of the Year Rachel Kennedy '16 brought her season goal-count to 16 by slipping away from an onslaught of Lady Jeffs for a shorthanded, unassisted score to move the game to a comfortable 3-0 lead. 20 second later Amherst finally pushed a puck past Bowdoin's Kayla Lessard '13 who stopped 27 shots during the match.
The Polar Bears will face No. 1 seeded Middlebury on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Polar Bears have played Middlebury twice this season, winning the first in a dominant 3-0 shutout and dropping the second 4-2. Bowdoin gave the Panthers their only shutout of this season, and entered the playoffs with the same number of NESCAC wins and more overall wins than them as well.
The last time Bowdoin played Middlebury in the women's hockey NESCAC championships was in the 2005-06 season, the Polar Bears' last berth to the finals. Bowdoin lost that match, 5-1.