Box Score
TROY, N.Y. – Senior Carrie Thompson (Shorewood, MN/Benilde-St. Margaret’s School) netted the game-winning goal at 13:54 of the third period to lead eighth-ranked Dartmouth College to a thrilling 6-4 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in ECAC Hockey action this afternoon. The Big Green improve to 9-2-1 overall and 7-2-0 in the conference play while the Engineers fall to 6-7-2 and 1-4-1 in the league.
With Dartmouth holding a 4-3 lead after two periods, Rensselaer tied things up on junior Nicole McDonald’s (Ottawa, ON/Ottawa Raiders) team-leading seventh goal of the season. The tie would be short-lived as Thompson found the rebound of a Larissa Roche (Thorhild, MN/St. Albert) for the goal past Engineers goalie Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) for the 5-4 lead.
A late tripping call on senior Kelly Barbera (Nesconset, NY/Gunnery School) saw Dartmouth gain the power play opportunity with under 40 seconds remaining. The Engineers pulled van der Bliek to make it 5 on 5, but the Big Green scored with six seconds remaining to seal the win.
Holding a 2-0 lead through the first period on goals by junior Jamie-Lynn Stewart (Cambridge, ON/Cambridge Jr. Fury) and sophomore Allison Wright (Oakville, ON/Oakville Ice), Rensselaer continued to light the lamp to open the second period. Sophomore Allysen Weidner (Wichita, KS/Shattuck St. Mary’s) put the homestanding Engineers up 3-0 at 3:06 with her sixth goal of the season, but Dartmouth’s Jenna Cunningham (Medicine Hat, AB/Kingsland Hawks), who finished with a goal and four assists, found the back of the net at 6:32 to cut the advantage to two.
Sophomore Sarah Parsons (Dover, MA/U.S. National Team) scored the next two goals for the Big Green, including a power play marker, to tie things up at 3-3 with 11:02 left in the frame. Junior Shannon Bowman (Leamington, ON/Windsor Wild Cats) pushed the score in Dartmouth’s favor at the 14:04 mark off an assist from Cunningham.
Clemis stopped 21 shots for the Big Green, which outshot RPI, 30-25 in the contest. van der Bliek posted 24 saves in the loss for the Engineers.
Rensselaer returns to action next weekend when they battle ECAC Hockey foes Quinnipiac and Princeton on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (4pm) at the Houston Field House. Dartmouth is back on the ice on December 15 and 16 at nationally-ranked Mercyhurst.
