Women's Weeknd Update

by Janet Schultz

Women's columnist

JDSchultz@gmail.com

Buffalo State takes on Oswego and Pink's the Rink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Proceeds benefit Roswell Park Cancer Institute. (Photo by Janet Schultz)

Orchard Park takes on Williamsville in WNY Girls Varsity Ice Hockey. Williamsville takes the win 3-1. (Photo by Janet Schultz)

It was a weekend of ice hockey at Buffalo State College with the men and women both holding their annual alumni games and then each playing a regular season game.

Maddy’s Game, the women’s alumni ice hockey game held in memory of Maddy  Loftus who was killed when Continental Flight 3407 crashed in Clarence in 2009, was held Saturday morning with two full teams playing competitive hockey. These girls don’t let fun get in the way of some serious hockey.

The white team beat the black team but there were several fun moments with the black team’s goalie also playing on defensive for several minutes.

During Friday and Saturday’s regular games, the Bengals wore pink uniforms to raise awarenss for breast cancer research. Proceeds from the game and the selling of tee shirts and baked goods was donated to Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

On Friday evening Buffalo State dropped to Oswego State 7-0. Oswego Coach Diane Dillon returned to her hometown and had her Lakers scoring early and often. Buffalo played both goalies Jordan Lee making 17 saves and Jessica Garland making 10 in an attempt to stop the Lakers.

The Lakers put in four power play goals with Senior MacKenzie Lee having two goals, including the eventual game-winner. Lauren Gilpin also had two goals, Chelsea Hunt had her first of the year and Kathryn Sbrocchi scored the fourth power play goal and a final even-strength goal by Megan Howe. Hamburg’s Bridget Smith made 17 saves for the Lakers.

On Saturday the Bengals came out strong with Brianna Murphy scoring the first goal at 7:55 into the first period. They held the lead into the second when Oswego’s Carly Henderson put one past Jordan Lee. Less than a minute later Kelly Collins put in another for the Lakers and Chelsey Drake put in an insurance goal taking the final score 3-1 in favor of the Lakers.

Oswego Laker Kelly Collins, Fairport, was named Oswego’s Athlete of the Week for January 29.

Niagara University’s Sophomore Goalie Sarah Moses made 26 saves to earn her first career shutout, helping the Purple Eagles beat Robert Morris 1-0. Freshman Kalli Funk put in her sixth goal of the season for the victory.

Not the same story in Pennyslvania on Saturday night when Robert Morris answered back and beat the Purple Eagles 1-0. Moses returned to the net pushing aside 30 Colonial shots but Brianne Delaney got one past her in the third period to give the Colonials the win.

Niagara returns home to face Mercyhurst at 7 p.m. on Friday during the “Pink the Rink” initiative on Monteagle Ridge.

The Big Red of Cornell started the weekend off with a 6-4 win over St. Lawrence University. But Clarkson had other ideas the next night.

Clarkson upset the Cornell 5-3. With Cornell down 4-1 in the third, Erin Barley-Maloney and Chelsea Karpenko cut Clarkson’s lead to 4-3. Clarkson’s Juana Baribeau had a hat trick taking Clarkson to victory.

Cornell holds a five point lead over Harvard in the ECAC, moving Harvard to second and Clarkson tying with Quinnipiac for third.

Cornell is home to RPI and Union College this coming weekend.

Cortland Senior Goalie Katie Double, Farmington, stopped 30 goals as Cortland finished a sweep of Chatham on Saturday. It was a 2-0 victory with Erika Osborne, Sharon Springs, and Brianna Rossi, Stormville, getting the puck in the net.

Union College fell 3-1 to RPI on Friday when RPI’s Eleeza Cox, scoring with less than seven minutes to play in the first period, put in the winning goal. Union’s only goal came from Maddy Norton in the third period. RPI repeated the win on Saturday with a 3-0 shutout.

In WNY Girl’s Ice Hockey Federation last week Kenmore beat Amherst/Sweethome 5-2; West Seneca beat Kenmore 3-2; Williamsville beat Orchard Park/Frontier 3-1; West Seneca took Lancaster 13-0; it was Monsignor Martin over Amherst/Sweethome 7-0 and Williamsville over Kenmore 5-2.

Upcoming games see Kenmore facing Monsignor Martin and Amherst/Sweethome facing West Seneca on Tuesday, January 31.

Monsignor Martin taking on Williamsville on Wednesday; Kenmore vs West Seneca and Williamsville vs Lancaster on Thursday, February 2.

West Seneca leads the league followed closely by Monsignor Martin. Williamsville is in third followed by Kenmore, Amherst/Sweethome, Frontier/Orchard Park and Lancaster.

Leading the player stats are Erin Gehen, Nicole Kirchberger, both of West Seneca; Rachel Lenard and Tara Barnhardt, both of Monsignor Martin and Molly Siolorski of West Seneca. Gehen leads with 30 points., Kirchberger, 32; Lenard 22, Barnhardt and Silorski each have 21.

Danielle Trolli of Monsignor Martin leads the goalies with a 0.94 goals against average after winning four games and tying one. Teammate Courtney Wesolowski is second with 7 wins, 1 loss and a GAA of 1.44.