Box Score
HANOVER, N.H. – Led by a five-point effort from senior Katie Weatherston (Thunder Bay, Ont.), Dartmouth College defeated Rensselaer, 6-3 in an ECACHL women’s quarterfinal playoff hockey game at Thompson Arena. The Big Green (24-4-2) take a 1-0 lead in the series and need one more win to advance to the semifinal round. The Engineers fall to 12-21-1 with the loss.
“I’m really happy with our effort tonight,” said head coach John Burke. “We executed our game plan really well and Whitney (Naslund) played a great game.”
Rensselaer jumped out to an early lead, opening the nights scoring at 3:34 of the first period. Freshman Whitney Naslund (Bloomington, MN/Bloomington Jefferson) picked up a rebound in front of the Dartmouth cage, and buried it past Big Green netminder Carli Clemis (Taber, Alta.), giving the Engineers the first lead of the game. Junior defenseman Ellen McNamara (Macomb, MI/Little Caesars U-19) was credited with the lone assist.
Five minutes later, Weatherston netted her first of the game. Sophomore Shannon Bowman (Leamington, Ont.) hit Weatherston with a backdoor pass, which she one-timed past Ashley Mayr (Burnaby, BC/BC Breakers), evening the score at 1-1. Bowman would give the Big Green its first lead of the game, converting a solid pass from Weatherston past the Engineers goalie at 13:10.
Just 56 seconds into the second period, Weatherston recorded her second of the night, burying the rebound of Bowman’s shot past Mayr for the 3-1 lead. Senior Meredith Batcheller (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) pushed the Dartmouth lead to three at the 9:12 mark when she stripped the puck from an RPI defender, beating the RPI netminder stick-side for the short-handed effort.
Despite the deficit, the Engineers refused to back down as Naslund netted two more, for her first career hat trick, bringing Rensselaer to within a goal. With the RPI power play just expired, Naslund converted a pass from linemate Nicole McDonald (Ottawa, ON/Ottawa Raiders) past Clemis at 10:22. The rookie center then added her third tally, unassisted, with less than two minutes remaining to pull RPI back into the game heading into the final period.
Weatherston scored twice for the third-ranked Big Green in the final stanza, which saw Clemis record 11 saves for the victory. Mayr finished with 32 stops in the loss, including 11 in the first period and 13 in third frame.
“I thought we played hard right from the start,” said Burke. “We made a few unforced errors, but I think if we can control those mistakes tomorrow and play our game we’ll be fine.”
The two teams will meet in Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 2pm. Should Dartmouth win, it will advance to the semifinal round, but if the Engineers win there will be third and deciding game on Sunday (2pm).
