Sunday’s ECAC-West Championship game came down to a 1:15 stretch with a few shifts in momentum.
With Elmira leading, 2-1, Lauryn DePaul netted her hat trick goal, and second power-play goal, at 6:40 of the second period.
Twenty-five second later, PSUC’s Megan DiJulio brought Plattsburgh State back within one.
But Melanie Henshaw responded for Elmira just 50 seconds later and the Soaring Eagles costed to a 4-2 win and their third straight ECAC-West championship victory over PSUC.
With Kate Fairfield in the box for checking, Elmira worked the puck across the blue line before Kathryn Walker made a diagonal cross-ice pass, splitting three PSUC players to DePaul, who one-timed the puck top shelf that proved to be the game-winning goal.
“We work on that in practice all the time,” DePaul said. “We had a couple power plays before that, and we could see the forwards were taking the D and the defense were trying to clog up the front of the net, so that pass was wide open. My defense did a great job getting it through.”
The last time PSUC allowed two power-play goals in a game was Jan. 26 when Norwich converted on 2-of-3. Elmira was 2-for-5.
“They moved the puck well, and maybe we were a little too passive on our kill, gave them too much time in-zone,” PSUC Head Coach Kevin Houle said. “You make that pass and how many times is it off the kid’s stick and into the corner? But she got all of it and upstairs. It was a nice goal.”
Instead of packing it in, down two goals to a team it has beaten just once in seven conference championship games, the Lady Cards came right back with DiJulio’s goal.
Senior co-captain Laurie Bowler collected the puck off the wall at about the hash marks and fed DiJulio down beneath the goal line. DiJulio quickly moved to the front of the net and stuffed it by Lauren Sullivan.
But then Henshaw struck reestablished the two-goal lead.
She controlled the puck at the PSUC blue line, moved to the slot and fought off three Lady Cardinals before slipping a backhand past Mandy Mackrell with 7:55 gone in the second.
“I thought we were extremely lucky to get the next one,” Elmira Head Coach Greg Fargo said. “That was the difference in the game.”
PSUC earned two power plays over the next three and a half minutes but was unable to convert, despite putting five shots on net. The Lady Cards finished 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
PSUC got a little momentum boost when the Steph Moon, Bowler and DiJulio line pinned Elmira in their own end in the closing minutes of the period.
“It’s definitely momentum, but you got to play like that two minutes the whole game,” PSUC sophomore defenseman Erika Shaubel said. “If we would have done that the whole game we would have been better off.”
PSUC had to try to do it all in the third period.
The last time the Lady Cards entered a third period trailing by at least two goals was last year’s NCAA quarterfinal game against Amherst. They trailed, 4-0, and lost, 4-1.
The comeback attempt was brought to a halt just 45 seconds into the third period when Brittany Meade was called for checking.
“That definitely hurt — stopped us from getting our momentum,” Bowler said. “Getting penalties sets you back, just puts you back a little bit for sure.”
From there, PSUC struggled to get any sustained pressure, even with a power play.
The closest they came to scoring was when DiJulio rang one off the crossbar with 6:43 to go.
The loss left the Lady Cards upset with themselves for how they played and not avenging two straight finals losses to Elmira.
“It’s the third year — this keeps happening,” junior defenseman Kara Buehler said. “It’s getting really old.”
With the win, Elmira earns an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. Norwich (ECAC-East) and Amherst (NESCAC) also won their conference championships Sunday to claim automatic bids.
The Lady Cards will have to wait until 10 a.m. Monday to find out their fate when the NCAA announces the Division III tournament championship field. Two at-large bids, in addition to the five automatic berths, will be announced.
“It hurts,” Bowler said. “I just hope this isn’t it.”
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