ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Chatham Women found themselves on the wrong end of a weekend sweep against the Nazareth Golden Flyers losing 3-0 on Friday and 5-0 on Saturday.
In Friday’s game, Nazareth set the pace from the start out-shooting Chatham 17-3 in the opening period. But junior netminder Devon Strachan stood strong stopping all 17 shots keeping the game scoreless through the first period.
In the second, Nazareth continued their strong play and eventually were able to best Strachan. About halfway through the period, the puck took a weird hop bouncing past the blocker of Strachan giving Nazareth the 1-0 lead. Just 1:35 later, Taylor Hudon increased the Golden Flyers lead to 2-0. Nazareth would find the net one more time before the horn sounded as Stephanie Kubis capitalized on a Chatham turnover making it 3-0 going into the break.
As the third period began, play tightened and Chatham was able to get nine shots on goal but none past Nazareth goaltender Adrianna Brehm. For Chatham, Strachan was perfect 10 for 10 in the 3rd period and made 41 saves on 44 shots. One bright spot in the Chatham lineup was Junior Forward Holly Ackerman who won 10 of her 11 faceoff attempts in the game.
In game two, head coach Jessica Newstrom decided to change her goalie giving first-year Katy Reed the start. As has been the case all season, Chatham once again found themselves in penalty trouble and were shorthanded five-on-three, when Mikalila Rubin ripped one past Reed with just 35 seconds remaining in the period to give Nazareth a 1-0 lead.
After taking four penalties in the first, the Cougar’s penalty woes continued with three more in the second, including a five-minute major and game misconduct on Sophomore Danielle Bos. Chatham would hold their own throughout the second and looked like they would go in the break down only one. However, Nazareth found the back of the net twice in the final three minutes and went into the locker room with a commanding 3-0 lead.
Chatham would have three power play chances in the third period but were unable to score. Nazareth was able to score a shorthanded goal to bring the deficit to four. In the dying minutes Nazareth would get their only power play of the period and increase the lead to five with just over a minute to play. Nazareth goaltender Adrianna Brehm made 18 saves in getting her second shutout of the weekend. Reed made 32 save on 37 shots in the loss.
With the sweep, Nazareth improved to 10-0 on the season while the Cougars dropped to 3-8 overall and 1-5 in conference. The Cougars will be back in action Friday and Saturday when they take on the 8-0 (6-0) William Smith Herons who carry a record of 8-0 overall and 6-0 in conference. Both games are at the Pittsburgh Ice Arena with puck drop on Friday at 7PM while Saturday’s game starts at 4 PM.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The men also found rough sledding on the road as they fell to Nazareth 4-1 on Friday and 5-0 to Utica on Saturday.
Chatham received some great news as sophomore goaltender Matt Callas returned to the crease for the first time since Feb. 10. Callas had both the Cougars wins last season. Nazareth came out flying and thought they had scored on the first shot of the game, but it was waved off due to the puck being illegally kicked into the net. Approximately six minutes later, Nazareth shot another one past Callas and this one counted as JR Wojciechowski wristed one from the point past Callas’ glove. Nazareth would get another before the end of the period as Ray Falso scored on the power play giving the Golden Flyers a 2-0 lead after one period.
Chatham came out flying in the second as Andrew Breda ripped one on Nazareth goaltender Michael Tilford who kicked the puck out to the bottom of the right wing circle. On the rebound, sophomore Michael Thamert put the puck into the back of the net cutting the lead in half just 1:21 into the second. Nazareth continued to push and was able to increase their lead back to two just nine minutes later. As the second period started to wind down, Nazareth found themselves on a five-on-three man advantage and after some pretty passing, Wojciechowski found himself with a wide open net on the back door making it 4-1.
Chatham tried to rally a comeback when they found themselves on a 5-3 power play with just over six minutes remaining. Head coach Michael Callan decided to go all in by pulling Callas giving his team a three-man advantage. Nazareth goaltender Tilford made several outstanding stops and the game remained 4-1 which would end up being the final score. In his return, Calas made 30 saves on 34 shots for the Cougars.
On Saturday Chatham made the two hour trip to play in Utica’s annual Teddy bear toss game in front of 3,935 fans.
The Cougars turned to freshman goalie Ricardo Gonzalez who kept the nearly 4,000 teddy bears in the stands as he stopped all 13 Utica shots in the first period. At the other end, the Cougars found no better luck as Utica goaltender Sean Dickson went 10 of 10 in save opportunities and the game remained scoreless after one.
In the early stages of the second period, Chatham found themselves on the man advantage looking to take the lead. Instead it was Utica’s Jamie Bucell scoring shorthanded giving Utica a 1-0 lead sending thousands of teddy bears to the ice. Utica continued to push scoring two more times before the period ended including one with 33 seconds left giving the Pioneers a 3-0 lead after two periods.
Utica came out firing in the third and found themselves back on the power play. They made Chatham pay when Daniel Fritz increased the Utica lead to four with 15:15 remaining. The Pioneers would get one final goal with just over four minutes remaining to defeat the Cougars 5-0. In the loss Gonzalez made 39 saves on 44 shots. With the sweep, Chatham’s record falls 1-7 overall and 1-5 in UCHC.
Chatham will return home this weekend to take on the Elmira Soaring Eagle 6-5 (5-2) on Friday at 7:10 p.m., and Lebanon Valley Flying Dutchman 3-3-2 (2-2-2) on Saturday at 7:10 p.m.
You can join me Friday night for the women’s game and Saturday for the men’s all on the Chatham sports network. https://gochathamcougars.com/watch/?Archive=126&type=Live
