Box Score

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team skated to a 3-1 victory at Union College on Friday as its top line of Jordan Smelker, Eleeza Cox and Jill Vandegrift combined for two goals and six assists in the game. The Engineers improve to 7-16-4 with a 4-9-2 mark in conference play.  The Dutchwomen slip to 4-19-4 and 2-11-2 in ECAC Hockey.  

Additionally, rookie netminder Kelly O'Brien (Sussex, WI/Madison Capitals) improved to 4-9-1 on the season, stopping 16 of the 17 shots she faced against Union.
 
The Engineers scored the game's first goal at the 13:42 mark of the opening period as Cox (St. Catharines, ON/Ridley College) notched her team-leading 10th of the season.  Jetting into the Union zone, Smelker (Anchorage, AK/Team Alaska 19U) sent a nice pass low to Cox in front, who backhanded it five-hole past netminder Kate Gallagher (Minneapolis, MN/Blake School).
 
Rensselaer rolled into the second period with solid momentum, but was unable to add to its advantage as the Union defense held strong.  Gallagher came up big in net for the Dutchwomen as the Engineers had two opportunities on the power play to grab another goal.
 
Smelker had one of the best chances in the frame for RPI as she fired several shots during the squad's first extra-man opportunity of the stanza with a shot off the pipe and another shot moments later blocked in front by senior captain and defender Dania Simmonds (Aurora, ON/Toronto Aeros).
 
In the final period, after 40 minutes of a one-goal game, the two teams engaged in a flurry of scoring as the Engineers broke things open with a pair of goals at the mid-point.  Smelker got things going at 9:56 of the period as she collected a pass from Cox and wristed a shot from the slot past Gallagher for the 2-0 lead.  Vandegrift (St. Paul, MN/Minnesota Thoroughbreds) earned her second helper of the contest on the goal.
 
Less than two minutes later, senior defender Sierra Vadner (Apple Valley, MN/Minnesota Thoroughbreds) gave the visitors a 3-0 lead as she caught the Dutchwomen on an odd-man rush, beating the defense while corralling an outstanding pass from Smelker for the tally at 11:53.  Cox was credited with the assist – her second of the game.
 
Union battled back at the 13:25 mark as sophomore Maddy Norton (New Canaan, CT/Choate Rosemary Hall) fired a shot from the point that trickled in under O'Brien to make it a 3-1 game.  Classmate Stefanie Thomson (Port Perry, ON/Trinity College School) earned the lone assist.
 
The homestanding Dutchwomen pulled Gallagher with just over a minute remaining, but three costly penalties against Union in the final stretch sealed the victory for Rensselaer.
 
Union's Gallagher finished with 18 stops in the loss and is now 2-7-4 on the year.
 
The same two teams return to action on Saturday in a 3pm conference tilt at the Houston Field House.