There is no such thing as an easy weekend for the women’s hockey team. Colgate traveled to the North Country to take on No. 3 St. Lawrence, its third straight game against a top-five team and fourth straight against a top-ten team, before playing ECAC foe Clarkson. Colgate lost a tough 3-1 game against St. Lawrence before tying Clarkson at two. Despite earning just one point in the two contests, the Raiders have to consider themselves fortunate, as they were less than a second away from losing the Clarkson game.

In the weekend opener, Colgate took an early lead against St. Lawrence when junior forward Marissa Dombovy assisted senior defender Clancy Todd on a power-play goal midway through the period. The lead, however, was short lived, as the Saints responded 80 seconds later to knot the game at one. St. Lawrence struck again four minutes into the second period to take a lead that would not be relinquished when a redirected puck snuck past first-year goaltender Kimberly Sass.The Saints concluded the scoring with a power-play goal just 45 seconds into the final period to take a 3-1 advantage that would last.

Colgate certainly produced opportunities against one of the nation’s elite teams as they outshot the Saints, 28-26 in a very evenly played game.

The following day the Raiders traveled to Potsdam for a league showdown with Clarkson. The Golden Knights took the early advantage when a deflected shot eluded Sass for a goal 8:31 into the game. Exactly three minutes later, the deficit was doubled when Clarkson scored a power-play tally.

With less than three minutes remaining before the first intermission, Dombovy capitalized on an odd-man rush when she took a pass from senior forward Elin Brown and found the back of the net to make the score, 2-1.

The Raiders tied the game at two just 1:10 into the second period when senior defender Kiira Dosdall scored a fluke goal from behind the blue line on an attempted dump-in. Sass provided the rare assist.

Dosdall’s goal proved to be the last of the game, but just barely. With the seconds dwindling away in overtime, Clarkson’s Juana Baribeau scored an apparent game-winning goal just as the horn sounded. Upon further review, however, the officials decided the puck crossed the line after the game had ended, enabling Colgate to escape the road trip with a hard-fought draw.

“[Earning a point] was extremely important because of a couple regrettable losses at the beginning,” Dosdall said. “We really can’t afford to lose many more games.”

Sass, who made 22 saves against St. Lawrence and 19 in the Clarkson game, was named the ECAC Rookie of the Week for her efforts. It was the second time this season she won the award. Even after a winless weekend, Sass is 6-2-2 on the season, good enough for the tenth-best winning percentage in Division I women’s hockey.

With final exams and the holidays looming, the Raiders have begun their break in the hockey schedule. After an 8-8-2 first half of the season, the team is optimistic about the remainder of the season.

“We’re progressing and I think that’s important,” Dosdall said. “We really need to focus on playing consistently and beating the teams that we should beat, whether it’s Harvard or Union. If we do that, we should have a very successful second half of the season.”

Colgate resumes play on Friday, January 2 when it hosts Boston College at Starr Rink at 5 p.m.