By David F. Pendrys

NEW HAVEN, CT – The Yale Bulldogs women’s hockey team pulled off a 1-0 victory over the visiting Quinnipiac Bobcats Tuesday night at Ingalls Rink. Tera Hofmann earned the shutout stopping 37 QU shots and Emma Vlassic picked up the game winner on the penalty kill no less.

Quinnipiac dominated period one sending 14 shots on net and swarming the Yale zone relentlessly. The Bulldogs managed only 2 shots in reply. But in period 2 the tables turned and while on one of many penalty kills, the Bulldogs broke out from their zone and swept up ice. Vlasic had a clean break and shot it past QU’s Allison Small. Assists went to Greta Skarzynski and Mallory Souliotis on making the opportunity happen. Yale would go on to send 12 shots on net to QU’s 8 in the period.

In the third, Yale played a very cautious game, trying to keep possession and dump the puck in, rarely getting chances on net as they only put up 4 shots. Quinnipiac on the other hand would send 15 at Hofmann. With 1:39 left in the game, Small was called to the bench, and soon afterward Yale was called for another penalty giving Quinnipiac a 6-on-4. The Yale defense held, including Souliotis dispatching the puck from the zone, and later QU made an unforced error and passed it out themselves as part of the struggle.

Souliotis ended the day with 4 shots to lead Yale. Skarzynski had 3, and Julia Yetman and Lauren Moriyama had 2 apiece. For QU, Kenzie Lancaster had 5, Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout, Kati Tabin, Brooke Bonsteel, and Taylor House each had 4 each.

Souliotis also led the team in blocks with 3, Saroya Tinker had 2, and Kara Drexler, Laura Anderson, Jordan Chancellor, Moriyama, Christina Kao, Courtney Pensavalle, and Yetman all had. Quinnipiac’s Olivia Konigson led the team with 3, Tabin had 2, and Kate MacKenzie, Alicia Barry, House, Grace Markey, Shannon Cherpak, and Coutu-Godbout had 1 each.

Hofmann and the Yale defense were fairly effective in shutting down Quinnipiac, though the D did give the Bobcats a lot of zone time. 6 Yale penalties, including 3 called on Chancellor gave the Bobcats a major advantage they were unable to utilize. Yale’s penalty kill played really well despite their even strength struggles. Quinnipiac once again faced an issue where they were generating chances but not getting it in the back of the net as much as one would expect. Though the Bobcats didn’t have as much high quality chances as they have had in past games.

For Yale, Skarzynski as usual was active on both sides of the ice, having a variety of defensive zone exits in addition to her offensive tries. Mallory Souliotis had a wide variety of zone exits as well and disrupted at least two Quinnipiac scoring efforts in addition to going end to end on her own chance. Vlasic and Courtney Pensavalle also did a lot to stop the Bobcats in the Yale zone. Saroya Tinker whisked the puck out of the goal mouth at least three times in addition to her other defensive efforts. Tinker, Pensavalle, Souliotis, Lauren Moriyama and Jordan Chancellor also generated a lot of scoring potential throughout the game.

For Quinnipiac, the offense was producing opportunities as usual with Taylor House, Samoskevich, Lancaster, Kenzie Prater, Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout and others gaining the zone often. Kati Tabin also prevented the puck from escaping the Yale section many times and came up with the puck at other times while in the Bulldogs end. Lancaster and Coutu-Godbout were often gaining possession as well. Nonetheless despite their many attempts, nothing could get in. Samoskevich, Lancaster, and Coutu-Godbout each had an end to end skate ending in a scoring try too.

Defensively, Alicia Barry was her usual presence on the ice disrupting the Yale attack and moving the puck. Laura Lundblad was noticed for her defensive play as well producing numerous moves out of the QU side.

Yale rises to 4-9-4 and 3-6-2 in the ECAC. Quinnipiac drops to 11-9-2 and 7-6-0 in the ECAC.

Noticed Plays

These are plays that are noticed during game play. They are not exhaustive. A lot are missed. It ‘s just what is seen. Read any of these as “at least” rather than “total”.Rather than write these out I am providing the raw notes. (A scoring chance doesn’t necessarily generate a shot. I only list the same scoring chance once in a player’s section.)

Key: (If you see one of these letters under a column it means the following.)

A – Led to a scoring chance. TA – Led to a team scoring chance.  SC – Scoring Chance  TSC – Team Scoring Chance ZE – Zone Entry O – Taken out of D-Zone S – Sent out of D-Zone (If it is in a Steals section.) Otherwise means Steal. GM – Out of goal mouth GA – Out of goal area F- Fought it out of D-Zone. N – Led to a zone entry.  NA – Led to a zone entry and scoring chance.

Yale (Larger version here.)

Quinnipiac (Larger version here.)