Newark Del. —After peppering Towson with 38 shots in a 9-0 shutout win Friday (Nov. 2), the The University of Delaware women’s hockey team swept Navy, 4-2 and 4-1, this weekend at Fred Rust Arena.
Saturday, Nov. 3 – Delaware 4, Navy 2
Saturday night’s (Nov. 3) festivities started off with a ceremony to honour the family members of the University of Delaware’s women’s hockey team who had served in the military. It was Military Appreciation Night, fitting as their opponent was the United States Naval Academy.
Wearing commemorative star-spangled jerseys, the Blue Hens out-skated, outshot and eventually outscored the Midshipmen, emerging victorious, 4-2.
While Delaware had three times as many shots as Navy in each period, Navy kept the fight even for the first two. Quite literally, as the score was tied at the end of each.
Delaware started the game with a trip called on Callan Small at 2:27. Kendall Dubin started off the scoring with her first of the game at 5:45. Ten minutes later, Navy centre Rose Gasper fired top-shelf on goalie Kendall Smythe to tie the game 1-1 off a Maggie Madigan assist.
The second period also started with a penalty, this time on Navy. While Ali Suciu sat for a cross-check five minutes in. Dubin scored her second goal of the game ten seconds into the power play, assisted by Carlie Smythe and Emily Hockey. Navy countered 25 seconds later, with Madigan again finding Gasper for a neat goal.
Though the third period started tied, as the others did, it did not stay that way. At the 11:38 mark, captain Mary Claire Newtown batted in a rebound off an Anna Schell shot to give the Hens the lead. Dubin collected her second power-play goal and completed a hat trick at 15:49 during a Gasper tripping minor.
Though Navy tried to fight back, the Blue Hens held onto their lead to win 4-2. The two teams will come together again Sunday, November 4, with a puck drop at 3:15 at the Fred Rust Ice Arena.
Sunday, Nov. 4 – Delaware 4, Navy 1
Things looked a little different Sunday (Nov. 4) as the University of Delaware Blue Hens took on the U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen for the second time this weekend. And yet, some things were exactly the same.
Similar to the day before, the game was quiet for a few minutes from puck drop until a penalty was called on Delaware. Courtney Marino was called on a hook just under six minutes in. Navy failed to convert on their power play, and all would remain quiet until the final two minutes of the first period. Sophomore forward Anna Schell put the Blue Hens on the board to take a 1-0 lead, assisted by sophomore winger Sunny Breen and senior blue-liner Callan Small.
Unlike Saturday, the Midshipmen were unable to tie the game before the end of the first period, instead starting off the second with a hook on freshman forward Ali Suciu. While Delaware was unable to put the power play to use they still scored the next goal at 8:19, Marino redeeming her earlier penalty with an assist from Small.
Just like Saturday, Navy’s sole goal-scorer was sophomore center Rose Gasper, fed off a pass from junior winger Maggie Madigan at 11:23 in the second. Freshman defender Priya Albert landed herself in the sin bin for a tripping minor with four minutes to go in the period, and Navy once again failed to use the power play to their advantage.
The Navy freshmen were apparently feeling a little rowdy Sunday as defender Quin Ramos was called on interference in front of the net early in the third period. She went into the box slamming the door and left it even louder as senior forward Carlie Smythe slipped one in passed Navy’s Julia Chenoweth in goal. Assists went to Schell and sophomore defender McKenzie Schurman.
Small managed to mar an otherwise good game with an interference call of her own three minutes later. Then for almost ten minutes all was quiet, and while Delaware outshot Navy 25-6 in the period, there was still some fight left in the Midshipmen.
Coach Ron Siefert called a timeout for Navy with just under three minutes on the board. Chenoweth raced off the ice a minute later, but instead of earning themselves another goal, the move let freshman forward Kendall Dubin pot her fourth goal of the weekend, Delaware’s fourth of the game.
Delaware hits the road Sunday (Nov. 11) to take on Wilkes University’s NCAA team in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., with a puck drop scheduled for 3:30 pm. They will return to home ice Friday, Nov. 16, hosting Rowan University in Gold Arena at 8:20 pm.
