The women’s ice hockey team is off to its best start since 2002, staying undefeated at 3-0-2 after beating Nichols College on Wednesday.
In their season opener, the Polar Bears handily defeated Colby (2-4-0) in Waterville, winning 6-1. First-year Miranda Bell stepped up for the team that had two of its top six scorers from last season graduate, scoring a hat trick in her first game as a Polar Bear.
Bell scored once, unassisted, in each of the first two periods, giving the Polar Bears a 2-0 lead going into the final 20 minutes of play. Colby scored early in the third off of a power play, but fellow first-year Julie Dachille answered a minute later to re-establish Bowdoin‘s two-goal lead. The floodgates opened seven minutes later as the Polar Bears scored three goals in three minutes to put the game away.
The next day, the team welcomed the Mules to Brunswick. Although it failed to find the back of the net as easily as it had the day before, the team was able to shut out Colby and earn a 1-0 victory.
The game stayed scoreless through the first two periods as Lan Crofton ’17 racked up 19 of her eventual 30 saves and Colby’s Angelica Crites held her own at her end of the rink.
The only goal of the game was not until halfway through the final period when, on a power play, Marne Gallant ’17 fed the puck across the ice to Schuyler Nardelli ’15, who found Maryanne Iodice ’18, who fired the puck just inside the left post.
Two days before Thanksgiving, the team needed a third period goal to tie The University of Massachusetts Boston (5-2-3). Five minutes into the game, Dachille fired a shot that was deflected by the UMass goalie, but Maureen Greason ’18 knocked in the rebound and gave Bowdoin a 1-0 advantage.
The Polar Bears held the lead until midway through the second period, when the Beacons scored twice in two minutes against Beth Findley ’16 who was making her first start in the net this season. Ariana Bourque ’16 came up big for the Polar Bears three minutes into the third period, equalizing the score at 2-2.
Four days later, the Polar Bears struggled through a defensive battle against Holy Cross (7-2-1), with both teams failing to score in the 0-0 tie. While Crofton had to save 15 more shots than her Holy Cross counterpart, the Polar Bears had multiple opportunities to take the lead, including chances from Greason and Dachille.
The team hopes to continue to receive an impressive contribution from its first years when they host Saint Anselm College tomorrow and Norwich University Sunday before taking a month off.