Wilkes Women's Ice Hockey Drops UCHC Matchup to Chatham
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University women's ice hockey team were unable to come back from three first period goals from the Cougars as the Colonels dropped their United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) game to Chatham University in Friday night action at the Toyota SportsPlex.
Wilkes drops to 3-7-1 on the season, falling to 3-4-1 in conference play. Chatham would improve to 6-7-1 this year and going 5-3-1 in UCHC action.
The game would begin with Chatham getting the early lead over Wilkes at the 7:12 mark where Allison Corser-James found the back of the net. The Cougars would extend their lead on a power play goal scored by Fiona Danahy at the 9:07 mark of the game. The Colonels would respond three minutes later as Rachel Morey (Buffalo, WY/) scored at the 12:22 mark, taking a shot near the goal as her teammate Emma Guzdek (Amherst, NY/) set her up in front of the Chatham goaltender. The Cougars would not leave the first period without a two-score lead as Ally Nolan scored with four seconds left in the period to give Chatham a 3-1 lead heading into the second period.
Chatham would pick up right where they left off as Corser-James would only take 1:46 minutes to score and make it a 4-1 game for the Cougars. Both teams would play defense, as Wilkes would outshoot Chatham 10-3 for nearly eight minutes, Morey, Guzdek, Abigail Davis (Mountain Top, PA), Emma Bresett (Davidson, NC), Julie Patterson (Trenton, NJ/), and Savanna Maxon (Anchorage, AK) would all try to get Wilkes another score.
As Maxon and Trinity Antonio were fighting for the puck, Anneke Bouma (Newcastle, ON) would get onto the ice near them and take the puck. Bouma would skate past the Cougars defense and hit a shot that would go into the top right of the goal at the 9:37 mark to make it a 4-2 game in the second period. It was the first career goal for Bouma. Addy Olson (Naples, FL/) would save three shots in the final 11 minutes of the second period as Wilkes would be down two goals heading into the third.
Chatham would get their offense picking up in the third, taking five shots in a three-minute span, eventually capping it off with Nolan's second goal of the game at the 8:45 mark to make it 5-2. Abigail Barcless (Hamilton, NJ) would respond with a goal at the 11:37 mark, as Maxon would pass it down to her near the goal and cut the Cougars lead back to two scores and have the game at 5-3. The point was the first for Maxon in a Colonels uniform as she joined the program at the beginning of this spring semester. Chatham would hold strong, with Sam Brophy holding off Wilkes shots in the last nine minutes of the game while Kaylynn Savoy would get one more score for the Cougars with 1:33 left in the game and take it to the end of the third to secure a 6-3 victory over the Colonels.
Bouma, Barcless, and Morey all scored for Wilkes while Gudzek and Maxon had an assist apiece. Kiera Lacombe (Buckeye, AZ/) went 9-for-21 in faceoffs while Morey won 12 of her 33 faceoffs. Patterson and Davis lead the team with five shots. Olson had 29 saves on the night for the Colonels.
Wilkes will look to split the series with Chatham as they face off against the Cougars on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in the Toyota SportsPlex for another UCHC matchup.
