Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – In NESCAC women's hockey action, Williams and Bowdoin skated to a 3-3 tie on Friday night at Lansing Chapman Rink. In the teams' first matchup since Williams's 4-1 win in last year's NESCAC title game, the home time jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Bowdoin pegged back all three goals to earn the point. The Ephs (7-7-2, 4-3-2 NESCAC) got a goal and assist from both Sara Lehman and Michaela Levine, while the Polar Bears (8-5-4, 4-3-2 NESCAC) got two goals from Ariana Borque.
Williams came out firing in the first period, getting an early power play goal at 1:13 from freshman Kearan Burke. Defenseman Hannah Beattie started the move, passing to Burke in the slot, who then touched it off to Natalie Bernstein in the right faceoff circle. Bernstein sped in to get off a close-range shot, and Burke forced home the rebound for her second goal of the year.
The Ephs made it 2-0 halfway through the period, with Levine scoring at 10:09 on assists from Lehman and Beattie. After Beattie gained the zone, she found Lehman, who skated in from the left slot, forcing Bowdoin goalie Beth Findley to commit. She found Levine with the puck at the back post, and the junior coolly slotted it home for her fourth of the season.
Williams saw out the first period well; when the Polar Bears went on their first power play at 17:19, the Ephs' penalty kill kept them from getting any shots or extended zone time. After the game, Eph head coach Meghan Gillis commented on her squad's performance in the first period, "I think we just kept it really simple, moved our feet, won battles, and got traffic in front. We had the advantage of having the home rink and being able to get a good quick start."
In the second period, the Ephs extended their lead to three before the Polar Bears pulled the game back to 3-2. Lehman, again skating in from the left slot, had two short-range shots saved by Findley, but held onto the puck and scored on a wraparound that came off the skate of a Bowdoin defender. Levine and Emily Krueger were credited with the assists. Bowdoin's Borque then pulled her team back within a goal. Her first goal came at 10:06, a few seconds into the Polar Bears' third power play of the night. After an Eph defenseman overcommitted in the neutral zone, Bowdoin got an odd-man rush that allowed Borque to score. Her second came a shade under four minutes later, when she deflected a Bridget Bergin slapshot into the back of the net.
Both teams had chances in the third, but it was Bowdoin who found the back of the net and equalized. With the teams playing four-on-four hockey, Maddie Baird took the puck in her own zone and found a streaking Rachel Kennedy at the Ephs' blue line with a perfectly timed pass. Kennedy, alone on the breakaway, went right to beat the Ephs' Christina Cleroux, tying the game at 3.
The teams skated scoreless for the rest of regulation and a tense overtime period, which saw Bowdoin get the better of shots on goal (4-1), but fail to convert a power play. The tie means that the two teams remain level in the NESCAC standings ahead of Saturday's meeting at Lansing Chapman Rink at 3:00 P.M.
