Last weekend, the Colgate women’s hockey team earned its first points of the long ECAC Hockey season. On Friday night, the Raiders tied the Brown Bears 1-1 and on Saturday afternoon defeated the Yale Bulldogs 4-0 at Starr Rink.

First-year forward Miriam Drubel had two goals throughout the weekend, junior assistant captain Brittany Phillips had three assists and sophomore defender Shannon Doyle had three helpers as well in the two contests. Senior goaltender and assistant captain Kim Sass continued her strong play by stopping 45 of 46 shots faced through­out the weekend, including 19 in a blank­ing of Yale on Saturday.

Colgate dominated in the first period of Friday night’s game, earning better scoring opportunites and outshooting the Bears 15-5 in the first 20 minutes. The Raiders were unable to crack Brown standout Aubree Moore’s code and came out empty-handed as the period ended in a scoreless tie.

Moore’s strong performance in the first period seemed to have given Brown the confidence it needed, as it proceeded to control play in the second frame. The Bears outshot Colgate 12-5 in the period and this time it was Sass’s turn to showcase her tal­ents. She stopped every puck she saw and kept the contest knotted at zero.

The stalemate did not last much lon­ger, however, as Brown drew first blood at 3:27 of the third frame. The goal seemed to wake up the Raiders offense, who dictated play throughout the period. Colgate out­shooting the Bears 15-10 in it. The Raid­ers struggled to score, however, and didn’t find the back of the net until 12:17 when Drubel knotted the game at one off a power play, assisted by Doyle and Phillips. Each team saw its own opportunities to score, but the game was destined to spill into an extra session. Neither squad could land the coup de grace that would give it the over­time victory and the contest ended at 1-1.

The following afternoon, the Raid­ers were determined to obtain their first ECAC Hockey victory of the year against a battered Yale team, who had fallen to Cornell 9-0 the previous evening. It was Yale, however, who controlled the first period as Colgate struggled to find its groove. The Bulldogs outshot the Raid­ers 9-4, but Sass made several key saves to keep Yale at bay.

Colgate seemed to have finally found its rhythm at the start of the second period, as it dominated play.

The Raiders first got on the board at 6:45 on a player advantage when sophomore forward Jocelyn Simpson scored off assists from Phillips and Doyle. A little under three minutes later, Colgate extended its lead when Drubel tallied her second tally of the weekend at 9:09, assisted by Phil­lips and Simpson. Towards the end of the period, the Raiders got another power play and this time it was sophomore forward Taylor Volpe’s time to get her name on the score sheet. On the power play, sophomore defender Megan Wickens gave the puck to senior co-captain Amanda Kirwan. Kir­wan fed it to Volpe, who blasted it past the Bulldogs’s Genny Ladiges at 17:39.

Colgate only waited 15 seconds into the final frame before first-year forward Melissa Kueber scored off assists from Doyle and junior defender Jessica Hootz. Throughout the remainder of the contest, the Raiders played to protect their lead, but Yale lost its control and left space for Colgate to enjoy several rushes.The Raid­ers were unable to score again and ended up earning their first conference victory by a margin of four goals.

This upcoming weekend Colgate will travel to Lewiston, New York to take on the Niagara University Purple Eagles in non-conference action. Both Friday and Satur­day’s contests will take place at 2 p.m.

Contact Jaime Heilbron at [email protected].