Quinnipiac University
Yale University
No. 4 QU Women's Ice Hockey Advances to Nutmeg Classic Championship with 5-2 Win Over Yale
11/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey
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STORRS, Conn. – Five different players scored goals for the No. 4/4 Quinnipiac women's ice hockey team on its way to a 5-2 win over the Yale Bulldogs Friday afternoon to earn a spot in the Nutmeg Classic championship game.
The Bobcats head to the Nutmeg Classic Championship game for the seventh time in program history and are in search of their sixth title. Last season, the Bobcats knocked off Yale in the championship game and have now won three consecutive games against the Bulldogs in the Nutmeg Classic.
Erica Uden Johansson (Sundsvall, Sweden) and Nicole Kosta (Mississauga, Ontario) each recorded two-point games with a goal and an assist in the victory over Yale. Meghan Turner (Bedford, New Hampshire), Morgan Fritz-Ward (Mason City, Iowa) and Emma Woods (Burford, Ontario) also added goals for the Bobcats. It was the second time this season in which the Bobcats had five different scorers in one game, with the 6-1 win over Rensselaer on Nov. 14 as the only other game.
Fritz-Ward's second period goal was her first of the season and stood as the game-winning goal for the Bobcats. Woods scored her sixth goal of the season, including her fourth in the last five games.
Kosta maintained her team-lead in assists with her ninth assist of the season in the victory.
Goaltender Chelsea Laden (Lakeville, Minnesota) finished with 16 saves in net for the Bobcats as she allowed two goals in a game for just the second time all season to improve to 12-0-1 between the pipes.
Neither team could get anything going on the power play as Quinnipiac finished 0-6 with the man-advantage while the Bulldogs were 0-3.
Turner gave the Bobcats a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the first period when her wrister from the right faceoff dot snuck past Yale goaltender Jaimie Leonoff but ricocheted off the post and into a Yale skate where it bounced into the net for the first goal of the game.
Scoring started to pick up in the second period as Woods doubled the Bobcats lead 8:30 into the second period when Brown found Woods with a pass skating into the offensive zone where she fired a shot high past Leonoff's glove side to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead.
Fritz-Ward added a goal with 4:46 remaining in the second period to give the Bobcats a 3-0 after Nicole Connery intercepted a pass from Leonoff playing the puck behind her own net and Connery passed the puck to a wide-open Fritz-Ward in front of an open net for the goal.
Yale started to make things interesting in the third period when it added its only two goals of the game but Quinnipiac was able to respond each time. Just 3:22 into the third period, Yale found the back of the net on Stephanie Mock's fifth goal of the season to cut its deficit to 3-1.
Quinnipiac answered back 2:18 later in the third period when Kosta sent a pass up ice to Uden Johansson and skated into the offensive zone to wrist a shot low under Leonoff's glove to extend Quinnipiac's lead back to 4-1.
Leonoff finished the game with 28 saves on the 32 shots she faced in net for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs added another goal midway through the third period cut the Bobcats' lead back to two goals at 4-2 when Phoebe Staenz barely squeaked a shot past Laden.
With 1:22 remaining in the game, Kosta added an empty net goal assisted by Uden Johansson to give Quinnipiac a 5-2 lead.
The Bobcats return to action Saturday night for the Nutmeg Classic Championship Game at 7 P.M. at the Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs, Connecticut where they will face the winner of Friday night's game between Clarkson and Connecticut.
