Women's Hockey | 12/12/2009 6:12:00 PM
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AMHERST, MA - Despite a hat-trick from junior forward #
Katie Stack (Batavia, NY/Rochester Edge)#, the fourth-ranked women's hockey team (5-1-2) had its season-opening unbeaten streak of seven games snapped, losing 5-3 to No. 2 Amherst (5-0-2) on Saturday afternoon.
Stack tallied two power-play goals, giving her a team-best 11 on the season in just eight games. She is third nationally in goal scoring. It was Stack's second hat-trick of the season, and her career. She tallied three goals in a 17-1 win over SUNY Potsdam on Nov. 21.
Amherst tallied three times with the man-advantage in seven attempts. RIT was 2-for-5. Amherst out-shot RIT 35-19.
The Jeffs entered Saturday's game having never defeated the Tigers in regular season play (0-8-1), with their lone win in the series coming in the 2007 NCAA Championship opening round. Amherst also snapped the three-game unbeaten streak RIT had been riding in the series.
After making 38 saves in Friday's game, #
Carley King (Tinley Park, IL)# (3-1-1) made 30 stops for the Tigers on Saturday. Caroline Hu made 16 saves for Amherst to improve to 4-0-0 on the year.
The Tigers were called for tripping 1:09 into the opening period and it took only 31 seconds for Amherst to capitalize. After an initial shot was knocked away by RIT's King, Stephanie Clegg was there to put home the rebound.
RIT tied things up 3:57 into the second period on a goal from Stack, with assists going to #
Danielle Read (Brantford, Ontario/Hamilton Hawks) and
Sarah Dagg (St. George, Ontario/Hamilton Hawks)#. Stack's equalizer came with only 17 seconds remaining on the power play. Dagg, who entered the weekend leading all of Division III in assists per game (2.00), recorded her 13th helper of the year.
Amherst needed only three minutes and 16 seconds to regain the lead thanks to Dennett's fourth goal of the season. Just eight seconds into a 5-on-4, the Lord Jeffs won a face-off in RIT's end and found Lloyd alone at the point. Lloyd delivered the puck into traffic and Dennett was there for the redirection, handing the hosts a 2-1 lead.
Amherst's third power play goal of the afternoon came with only 47 seconds remaining in the second period when Kirsten Dier put home a rebound to help the Jeffs carry a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
Freshmen #
Kim Schlattman (Stratford, Ontario/Cambridge Fury) and
Kayla Ross (Altoona, PA/Gilmour Academy)# assisted Stack in the opening two minutes of the final period to chip away at Amherst's lead, but Braidie Campbell returned it to a two-goal advantage with 13:03 remaining in regulation.
It became a 5-2 advantage with only 4:33 to play when Vitale snuck a shot past King. Vitale didn't have a great angle on the net, but King was screened on the play. RIT called a timeout when it went on the power play with 3:05 remaining, and it took only 17 seconds to set up Stack for her third goal of the game. Stack let loose a knee-high slapshot from just ahead of the blue to beat Hu stick-side to make it 5-3, but that would be the final goal of the game for either team.
RIT closes out the 2009 calendar year with a pair of home games against Adrian on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19.
