HARTFORD, Conn. – #14 Trinity College Women's Ice Hockey put on a gritty performance as they dealt a loss to Colby in a 4-3 overtime victory in Koeppel Center Friday afternoon. The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) win lifts the Bantams to a 10-4-2, 3-4-2 overall record, while the Mules drop to a 12-4-1, 4-4-1 record in the season.
Bantams senior Jenny Guider found her footing early against the Mules as she put Trinity on the board first. With eight minutes remaining in the first period Guider would find success during a Bantams power-play to lift them to a 2-0 lead. Hannah Leclair would keep the Trinity net clean, closing out a scoreless period for the Mules collecting 8 saves.
Visiting Colby would knot up the score in the second period with goals just minutes apart from the Mules Beth Sinson and a power-play goal from Maria Pierce. Freshly released from the penalty box, Guider would recover the puck off the won faceoff and send it right past Paige Bolyard. With that goal the senior forward recorded her first collegiate hat trick making it a season and career-high for goals scored in a game lifting the Bantam's back into the lead with nine minutes left in the second (3-2). Bantams goaltender, Leclair registered 12 saves in the second period.
The Mules would continue to put pressure on our defensive end in the third, eight minutes into the period a Colby goal would lock the score 3-3. The Bantams would fire off 12 shots following the Mules goal, unable to find success between the pipes the NESCAC battle would head into overtime.
Leclair played lights out in the net for Trinity as she denied every Colby scoring opportunity in the final minutes of play. At 3:48 Bantams Martina Exnerova saw a scoring opportunity from just outside the neutral zone, but was denied by the pipe. With twenty seconds left in OT Exnerova saw her second chance on net and went top shelf on the Mules goaltender to solidify the NESCAC 4-3 win over visiting Colby College.
Trinity outshot the Mules 32-23 on net, during the game. Jenny Guider with five shots and Paige Kehoe adding four led the Bantams in the NESCAC contest. Hannha Leclair recorded twenty-nine saves in the night.
The Bantams will be back on the ice for game two of their series against the visiting Colby College Mules in Koeppel Center Saturday, January 27th at 4PM.
