Box
Score
In the game's first six minutes Williams was all over Hamilton
ripping off eight shots to the visitors' zero, but that all changed
when the Continentals' Lauren Tomford came in on Eph goalie Denise
McCulloch from McCulloch's left side on a power play opportunity.
Though pressured by the Eph defense Tomford was able to roof
Hamilton's first shot of the contest over the left shoulder of
McCulloch to put the Continentals up 1-0 at 6:19.
Williams answered the Tomford goal at 14:10 of the period when
they tallied off a scramble in front of Hamilton goalie Meg Shine
on a power play. First year Alison Page knocked in the goal off a
feed from senior Caralyn Quan.
The opening 20 minutes of play featured 10 penalties (five by each
team) and 26 shots on goal. Williams led in shots 16 to 10. "It was
tough to get an offensive rhythm out there with all of the
penalties, but still we managed to create a lot of scoring
chances," noted Eph head coach Shannon Bryant.
There were six more penalties in the second period and Hamilton
out shot the Ephs 15-10, but neither team could score the go-ahead
goal. At 7:26 of the period Hamilton's Meg Shine went diving to her
left to stop a shot and then with only her glove hand above the ice
deflected an Eph rebound attempt to keep the score knotted.
Moments later the Ephs put themselves in a precarious position
with three players in the penalty box at one time, but McCulloch
and her various penalty killers were up to the task of keeping
Hamilton off the board for the entire three plus minutes the Ephs
were down at least one man.
Just over six minutes into the third period the Continentals took
the lead when Tomford scored for the second time. Christie Sharlow
dug the puck out of the corner to McCulloch's right and fed Tomford
as she circled toward the front of the goal from 15 feet out.
Tomford's wrister beat McCulloch into the far netting.
At 13:46 Eph goalie Denise McCulloch shutdown a Hamilton breakaway
attempt to keep her team alive, but in the end the Ephs could not
find the equalizer and Hamilton collected the win.
Summing up the game Shannon Bryant said, "When it was five on five
I thought it was a good game, but we gave them too many chances on
mental mistakes. We need better movement on our power play and we
need to score off the chances we are creating."
Next up for the Ephs is a home game tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 pm
vs. Little Three and NESCAC foe Wesleyan.
