March 1, 2008

Trinity Moves Past Hamilton, 5-1, in Women's Ice Hockey First Round

Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

Box Score

HARTFORD, Conn. – First year forwards Sarah Kohn (Winchester, Mass.) and Kim Weiss (Potomac, Md.) each scored two goals to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 5-1 win over the visiting Hamilton College Continentals in the first round of the 2008 NESCAC Women’s Ice Hockey Championship on Williams Rink in the Koeppel Community Sports Center. Third-seeded Trinity improves to 18-4-3 with its first-ever post-season victory, and will play second-seeded Amherst in the NESCAC Semifinals on Saturday, Mar. 8 at Middlebury at 4 p.m. 

Weiss started the scoring at 11:50 mark of the first period, taking a lead pass from senior co-captain blue liner Erin Fitzgerald (Ridgefield, Conn.) and beating the last Hamilton defender with a pretty move before shooting the puck over the right shoulder of Continental sophomore goaltender Meghan Shine (Duxbury, Mass.) and into the net.

Trinity took a 3-0 lead with two goals in the first seven minutes of the second frame. On one of 10 power play situations for Trinity in the game, Bantam freshman forward Laura Komarek (Plymouth, Minn.) blasted a slapshot from 10 feet outside the left face-off circle that caromed off the right post and into the net, giving Trinity a 2-0 lead 2:56 into the second period. Kohn scored her first goal at the 6:32 mark of the second, flicking in a wrist shot from the left wing that beat Shine low on her right side.

Hamilton got on the board with just 38 seconds left on the clock in the second stanza, as sophomore forward Lauren Tomford (Avon, Conn.) took a hard shot from the left wing that was deflected into the air off a Trinity stick and fluttered past Bantam sophomore goalie Isabel Iwachiw (New York, N.Y.).

Trinity answered quickly after the second intermission, scoring a short-handed goal on the second breakaway score of the game for Weiss. Kohn finished scoring with a power play goal 5:34 into the third, redirecting a shot from the point by fellow rookie Michelle Benjamin (Reading, Mass.) past Shine and into the Continental net.

Kohn assisted on what proved to be the game-winning goal by Komarek to total three points in the game, while junior forward Michelle Chee (San Francisco, Calif.) notched three helpers, including the clincher, for the Bantams. Iwachiw totaled 18 saves and Shine stopped 21 shots. The teams combined for 38 minutes worth of penalties, but the defenses totaled 14 successful penalty kills between them.