WATERVILLE — The Colby women’s ice hockey team is better than its been in a very long time.
Madi Aumann and Bri Michaud-Nolan scored goals and junior Cierra San Roman made them stand up with 20 saves as the Mules completed a weekend sweep of rival Bowdoin, courtesy of a 2-0 win on Saturday afternoon at Alfond Rink. With the win, Colby improved to 4-0-0 to start the season in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.
The Mules opened the weekend with a 2-1 overtime win at Bowdoin on Friday and now has four straight victories over the Polar Bears.
Colby’s Lauren Klein (10) passes the puck as she is defended by Bowdoin’s Kathryn Kester (10) right, in Waterville on Saturday. Morning Sentinel photo by Michael G. Seamans
“The last Colby-Bowdoin game in this rink, it’s good to close it out that way and get another two league points,” said San Roman, who posted her first shutout of the season and the fourth of her career. “They were blocking shots (in front of me), keeping people out of the front, and as long as I can see the shot I can make the save.”
The four-game winning streak is Colby’s best to a season start since 2001 when it won its first five games overall and nine of its first 10.
“It’s very sweet,” Colby coach Holley Tyng said. “We played much more of our tempo (than in Friday’s overtime win). We knew they were going to be fast, we knew they were going to be physical, and I think we were kind of uncertain about how we would handle that last night.
“I think it helped that (Friday) ended on a positive, and we started to see that, ‘Hey, we can do this.’”
Bowdoin (2-2-0) was without three of its top five forwards, and head coach Marissa O’Neil said a short bench in the Polar Bears’ overtime loss to Colby on Friday led to some tired legs on Saturday.
She’s still trying to get a feel for the temperature of her team, a squad which graduated a third of its team last spring and brought in eight freshmen this season.
“We have a lot of moving parts right now,” O’Neil said. “We’ve got to figure out who we are and what we want to be… It’s just a matter of if we can start to dictate the pace a little more than we have.”
Colby’s top line of Tess Dupre, Lexi Cafieri and McKinley Karpa set the tone for the Mules throughout the night. It was Dupre’s work in front of the net that led to Aumann swatting a loose puck home at 17:28 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.
In the second, the Mules power play went to work en route to Michaud-Nolan cashing it at 9:44 through a patient transition game down the middle of the ice.
“We had a lot of chemistry last year and it’s carrying over into this year,” said Dupre, who also played with Cafieri and Karpa last season. “We all have our strengths. Lexi and Mac work really well in the corners, and I sort of get set up in front of the net for some shots. We all look to set each other up.”
Bowdoin woke up in the third period, but the Polar Bears could not cash in on any of their six power play opportunities in the stanza — including a 63-second two-man advantage. Bowdoin mustered just five power-play shots, three of them on the two-man advantage.
“We changed our penalty kill around a little bit, and it’s way more aggressive. I think we’re attacking more. We even had a few opportunities for some shorthanded goals, which is nice. There’s a lot of grit.”
The closest Bowdoin inched to igniting comeback hopes was when Izzy Stoddard rang her wrister off both posts from the left point with 8:35 remaining.
“That was our chance,” O’Neil said.
“You just thank the posts and move on,” San Roman said, smiling.
Dani Marquez made 39 saves in the loss.
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