BUFFALO, N.Y.-The SUNY Potsdam women’s hockey team (1-1-1, 0-1 ECAC West) fell at Buffalo State (3-0, 1-0) 4-1 on Friday night in its ECAC West opener. Senior captain Sally Mooney (Columbus, Ohio/Wyoming Seminary) scored for the Bears and Bri Carroll scored twice for the Bengals.
The Bengals jumped on the Bears immediately. Just 20 seconds into the contest, Carroll gave Buffalo State a 1-0 advantage. Nearly nine minutes into the period, the Bears went on their first power play. Potsdam peppered Buffalo State goalie Justine Silva with four shots, but the Bears were unable to even the score. Two minutes later the Bengals went on their own power play and made the most of it. Megan Reukauf scored on the man advantage to double the lead at 15:03. The Bengals edged the Bears in shots 6-5 in the first 20 minutes.
Carroll struck again to make it 3-0 2:57 into the second period with another power play goal. Buffalo State continued to press Potsdam and was rewarded with an even strength goal from Christine Harris at 7:17. The Bears finally took advantage of a power play at 14:02 as Mooney (Columbus, Ohio/Wyoming Seminary) closed the gap to 4-1. Freshman defenseman Rylie Murray (Berkley, Mich./Honeybaked) and sophomore forward Brenna Wilson (Kanata, Ontario/Ottawa Senators) assisted on the goal. The scored remained 4-1 after 40 minutes.
The Bears were unable to gain any ground with three power plays in the third period and the Bengals couldn’t convert on their lone man advantage. Buffalo State edged Potsdam 9-8 in shots in the third as the teams skated to the 4-1 victory.
Senior goalie Abby Tardelli (Potsdam, N.Y./North Country Ice Storm) finished with 24 saves, while Silva stopped 20 shots for the win. The Bears were 1-for-6 on the power play and the Bengals went 2-for-5.
The two teams go at it again today at 2 p.m. in Buffalo.
