Box Score BRUNSWICK, Maine- Colleen Finnerty scored the game's only goal in the first period to carry the Bowdoin women's ice hockey team to a 1-0 win over tenth ranked Amherst Saturday afternoon.
The Lord Jeffs and Polar Bears split the weekend series to end their regular seasons. Bowdoin will enter NESCAC playoff action with an 11-10-3 overall and 6-7-3 record in conference play. Amherst leaves Brunswick at 13-6-5 (9-3-4 NESCAC).
The Polar Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead just one second after concluding the power play, 4:17 into the first period. Setting up for a slapshot from the high slot, Maddie Baird rifled the puck towards net with Finnerty connecting for a redirect past Amherst's Yuna Evans. The Lord Jeffs looked to even the score five minutes into the second period as Anne Gillard snaked past the Bowdoin defense and into a quick one-on-one with Lan Crofton in net. Wristing a shot glove side, Gillard's bid was grabbed out of the air by Crofton to preserve Bowdoin's 1-0 lead through the end of two periods.
Bowdoin and Amherst traded possession throughout the third period, with key opportunities coming for both sides. Three minutes into the final frame, a Bowdoin turnover in their defensive end left Madeline Tank with a clean shot from the doorstep that was turned away by Crofton.
Jessica Bowen's move to shake her defender behind Amherst's blue line resulted in a shot just wide of the net, keeping the score locked at 1-0. Another Lord Jeffs takeaway in the Bowdoin zone came from Eileen Harris who controlled the puck and wristed it directly into Crofton, preserving the shutout.
Crofton played all 60 minutes in net for the Polar Beras, making 33 stops to record her first shutout in a Bowdoin uniform. Evans played two full periods, blocking 14 shots, before Kerri Stuart closed out the game with four more.
Amherst enters post-season action as the number two seed, and will host seventh seeded Colby next Saturday. Bowdoin ended the regular season as the four seed following a 4-4 Wesleyan/Trinity tie Saturday evening. With Wesleyan holding the tie breaker over Trinity, the Cardinals will return to Watson Arena as the five seed for a quarterfinal game next Saturday.
Bowdoin honored its five-member senior class prior to Saturday's game against Amherst (photo courtesy of Brian Beard/www.CIPhotography.com)
