Inside Merrimack Women's Ice Hockey.
Merrimack Athletics
A casual fan may look at the Hockey East Standings and see Merrimack College’s 3-17-0 record and call this a bad year. However, this is the first year at the Division 1 level for the Warriors and they are facing some of the best competition in college hockey in Hockey East. The Warriors roster consists of 16 Freshmen, 3 Sophomores and 2 Juniors, every player is a first year player.
Monday night, the Warriors headed up to the University of Vermont for their first Hockey East matchup of 2016. Coach Erin Hamlen wanted her Warriors to look for a fresh start, “we’re going to be 0-0 and I put it on the board.” In a great defensive battle, the teams would head into the third period scoreless. 5 minutes into the third, UVM would finally punch one past Merrimack Goalie Samantha Ridgewell (Fr., Outlook, Sask.) with a goal by Dayna Colang. As time ticked towards the final horn, Ridgewell was pulled from the Merrimack goal for an extra skater. With 32 seconds remaining Paige Sorensen (Fr., Plymouth, Minn.) blasted a shot from the point past the UVM goalie to tie the game.
Merrimack had gone to overtime one other time, falling short to UNH one month prior. However, this night would belong to the Warriors. Paige Voight (Fr., St. Michael, Minn.) made a great move to put the puck in the net for the Warriors after a pass on a 2 on 1 break with Katelyn Rae. (Fr., Courtice, Ont.)
This was the Warriors first win after they had trailed in the game, their first Overtime win and their first win on the road for the first year program. Ridgewell, a freshman, finished with 26 saves. Voight and Sorenson are 1st and 2nd, respectively, on the team in points. This bodes well for the future of the Merrimack Women’s ice hockey team.
Coach Hamlen was happy with the effort from her young team Monday night. "Our team showed incredible resilience tonight and ability to come back on the road. I'm proud of their effort from start to finish. We had a couple of highlight reel goals from individuals but I'm more pleased with our complete team effort. It's a great way to start the new year with two points in the Hockey East." Merrimack is also now just 2 points behind UConn and UVM for the 7th or 8th spots in the Hockey East playoffs. Coach Hamlen spoke about the opportunity of making the playoffs in the program’s first season “Our goal is to be in that top 8 and have a shot and as a first year program with all freshmen that would be a big accomplishment.”
The Warriors play a non-conference game at St. Lawrence Wednesday, then return home to face UConn Saturday, January 9th, at Lawler Arena in North Andover at 2 pm.
Follow Kyle Wescott on Twitter: @MHSWescott
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