Box Score /
Highlights
TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team broke out onto the scoreboard first, but could not hold off a Yale comeback as the Bulldogs tied the game and forced overtime in a 2-2 ECAC Hockey draw at the Houston Field House on Saturday. With the draw, the Engineers move to 10-12-7 and 8-8-2 in conference play. The Bulldogs are now 7-14-3 with a 6-9-2 mark in ECAC Hockey.
Holding a 2-0 advantage after a pair of first period goals, the Engineers saw their lead slip away in the final stanza as Yale recorded two goals early in the period. Junior defender Heather Grant (Toronto, ON/Toronto Aeros) got things going at 4:13 after she collected the puck off the face-off from sophomore Alyssa Zupon (Basking Ridge, NJ/New Jersey Rockets) and unloaded a shot from the near-point. Senior netminder Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) was screened on the shot as the puck sailed into the top right corner.
The Bulldogs then knotted it at 2-all just 39 seconds later as rookie Jenna Ciotti (Manotick, ON/Ottawa Senators) scored her eighth of the season. It was also her fourth of the weekend after notching a hat-trick against Union on Friday. She recorded the goal after corralling a pass from classmate Patricia McGauley (Wilcox, SK/Regina Rebels) and firing a shot from the middle of the far circle.
Despite a number of tries by the Engineers in the closing minutes of the game, including a point-blank shot by sophomore Taylor Horton (St. Thomas, ON/Bluewater Jr. Hawks) in the low slot, neither team could get the go-ahead to force overtime. Yale had its chances in regulation as well, including a near-miss from the top of the right circle by senior Bray Ketchum (Greenwich, CT/Connecticut Stars) that banked off van der Bliek's shoulder and out.
Rensselaer opened the contest with a pair of goals as rookie Toni Sanders (York, PA/Susquehanna Rapids 19U) scored just 1:13 into the frame after finding her own rebound at the goal mouth and banging it home. Seniors Sydney O'Keefe (Prior Lake, MN/Prior Lake) and Kendra Dunlop (Granum, AB/Warner Hockey School) were credited with the assists on the tally.
The Engineers made it a 2-0 advantage at 10:29 as O'Keefe carried the puck down the near boards before shooting it out to the middle slot. Dunlop got her stick on it, but O'Keefe was there to collect the loose puck and fired an off-angle shot at Bulldogs netminder Jackie Snickeris (Dowington, PA/Connecticut Polar Bears) for the lead after the opening period.
van der Bliek posted 20 stops in the draw for Rensselaer, which had a 30-22 shot advantage. Snickeris stopped 28 shots in the Yale net.
RPI is back in action next weekend, traveling to Quinnipiac and Princeton on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (4pm). Yale is also back on the ice next week, hosting Brown on Tuesday (7:30pm).
