UTICA, NY- The Utica College women’s hockey team took over sole possession of third place in the ECAC West Conference standings as it topped visiting SUNY Potsdam 4-2 on Saturday en route to its third sweep against a conference opponent this season.
The Pioneers improve to 11-5-1 on the year and 7-2-1 in ECAC West play, while Potsdam falls to 6-12-2 (1-11-1 ECAC West). Utica looks to carry its momentum into its conference series next weekend at home against Neumann University. The Pioneers will take on the Knights on Friday at 7 p.m. for the fourth installment of the Shawn Grady Fund Gold Ribbon Game for childhood cancer awareness, before wrapping up the weekend on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Utica opened the scoring just over halfway through the first period as freshman Lauren Patterson (Burlington, Ontario/Oakville) sent a perfect pass to Gabrielle Schnepp (Northville, MI/Belle Tire) on a 2-on-1, who buried the puck into the open net. Junior Jane Pagano (Erie, PA/Tabor Academy) also assisted on Schnepp’s eighth of the year. Just three minutes later, Patterson and Schnepp connected with senior Morgan Reed (Fort Myers, FL/Cushing Academy) for Reed’s team-best 14th goal of the season to give UC a 2-0 lead.
Potsdam cut the lead in half at 16:15 of the first as a point shot from Kady Hart found the back of the net for her first tally of the year. Sally Mooney and Jordan Ott assisted on the play. The Bears evened the score at 5:22 of the second on the power play as Amanda Peterson put in her fourth of the year from Mooney and Ott. It was short lived, however, as just 37 seconds later Pagano picked up a puck at the blue line, skated in, and back handed a shot that slipped through the five hole of Abby Tardelli for her first goal as a Pioneer. Freshman Jennifer Liu (North Saanich, British Columbia/Shaftesbury Titans ) was credited with an assist on the play.
UC capped off the scoring with just 35 seconds left as Patterson collected a puck at the top of the circle and fired it into the open net for her sixth of the season. Patterson led all players with three points on the day.
Junior Keira Goin (Dobbs Ferry, NY/Hotchkiss School) made 24 saves for her tenth win of the season, while Tardelli finished with 28 saves in net for Potsdam.
