DURHAM, N.H. – A prolific offense coming into Friday afternoon’s game, the No. 4/4 Colgate women’s ice hockey team took their play to the next level with a 7-1 victory against the New Hampshire Wildcats at the Whittemore Center.
Junior Shae Labbe (Calgary, Alberta) tallied her third career hat trick and first-years Coralie Larose (Embrun, Ontario), Jackie Leone (Andover, Massachusetts) and Bailey Bennett (Gardena, California) all scored their first career goals in the game.
Labbe’s natural hat trick was the fastest in program history as she tallied all three goals within 8:39, beating Kara Leene’s hat trick in 11:10 against Union on Feb. 25, 2006.
Adding to the excitement of Friday’s win was Julia Vandyk (Cambridge, Ontario) setting the program record for wins in a career with 36, breaking the previous record of 35 by Rebecca Lahar ’05.
Labbe scored the first three goals of the game for the Raiders after the Wildcats took a 1-0 lead with 6:12 left in the first period. Labbe answered Nicole Dunbar’s tally with a power-play goal just 1:31 later to tie the game at 1-1. Jessie Eldridge (Barrie, Ontario) fired a shot from the high slot that was redirected by Annika Zalewski (New Hartford, New York) to Labbe next to the left post where she tapped the puck home.
Colgate exploded for five goals in the second period, the most goals for a Colgate women’s ice hockey team in a period since scoring six in the second period against Union on Feb. 25, 2006. With a power play carrying over from the first period, Labbe scored just 20 seconds into the second period. She skated the puck into the offensive zone and passed it to Zalewski near the slot but Zalewski hit Labbe back with a pass in the right faceoff circle. Labbe attempted to pass the puck through the slot to a wide-open Eldridge but the puck caromed into the goal to make it 2-0.
Labbe completed the natural hat trick 4:10 later with to jump the Raiders out to a 3-0 lead with plenty of time left in the second period. Olivia Zafuto (New Hartford, New York) worked the puck to Eldridge on the left side of the defensive zone where she hit Labbe with a home run pass to the opposite blue line. Labbe chased down the puck in the right circle and turned toward goal where her initial shot was saved before backhanding home the rebound.
The final three goals of the period were scored in a span of 2:47 midway through the period, the sixth fastest time in a span of three different goal scorers in program history.
Larose got the first goal of her career after receiving a pass on the right wing from Shelby Wood (Cambridge, Ontario) at the point. Larose fired the puck towards the net and managed to find the gap between New Hampshire goaltender Ava Boutilier’s skate and the near post to make it 4-1 with 12:43 left in the second period.
Fellow first-year Leone got in the scoring action just 31 second after Larose’s goal for the first of her career. Shelby Perry (Elginburg, Ontario) passed the puck from behind the goal to Leone skating into the slot where she rifled the shot top shelf past new goaltender Hilary Cashin’s blocker side.
Bennett closed out the second period scoring 1:16 after Leone with the first goal of her career as well. After receiving a pass from Anonda Hoppner (Carp, Ontario), Bennett skated through the defense in the offensive zone to the slot where she wristed a shot top shelf past Cashin’s blocker to give the Raiders a 6-1 lead.
Hoppner closed out the scoring with a goal of her own with 5:05 to play in the third period as she collected the rebound off Bennett’s backhand from the slot and buried her first goal of the season to complete the 7-1 rout of the Wildcats.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 7, New Hampshire 1
WIN/LOSS RECORDS
The Raiders extended their new winning streak to three games to improve to 10-1-0 while the Wildcats lose for just the second time this season to fall to 6-2-3 this season.
KEY RAIDER INFO
-Labbe recorded the fastest natural hat trick in program history in 8:39, beating Kara Leene’s previous record by 2:21.
-Colgate’s five goals in the second period were it’s most since scoring six in the second period against Union on Feb. 25, 2006.
-Larose, Leone and Bennett scored the sixth fastest three goals in program history in 2:47.
-Labbe’s hat trick was the third of her career and now leads the team with eight goals
-Larose, Leone and Bennett all recorded the first goals of their careers
-Bennett’s also added an assist for her first career two-point game
-Hoppner tallied a goal and an assist for her third career two-point game
-Eldridge tallied a pair of assists to extend her team lead in points to 14.
-Zalewski joined Eldridge with two assists to give her six this season with eight points
-Perry tallied her team-leading 10th assist of the season for her third straight game with a point and ninth total game with a point this season
-Wildfang picked up her eighth assist of the season while her d-partner Wood recorded her second career assist
-Zafuto also recorded an assist, her sixth of the season
-Vandyk made 21 saves in the winning effort to set the program record for wins in a career with 36.
FACTS AND FIGURES
-Colgate outshot New Hampshire 32-22, and scored goals on five of their nine shots in the second period
-The Raiders were 2 for 3 on the power play while their penalty kill was perfect at 5 for 5.
-New Hampshire had a slight edge in faceoff wins at 26-23.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Greg Fargo
“We saw a good effort today from our group. I thought our team came ready and focused to play.”
“The first period was a back-and-forth period. Both goalies had to make some saves and we got a big penalty kill that carried us through the first 20 minutes.”
“We continued to do some good things in the second period which resulted in a handful of good scoring opportunities. It was really nice to see some of our players get their first career goals, those are memorable moments for them and our team.”
UP NEXT
It’s a longer turnaround than usual for both teams, as the Raiders and Wildcats will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Whittemore Center.
