No. 10 Robert Morris defeated the Brown Bears, 3-2, at Meehan Auditorium in Providence, R.I. on Saturday afternoon after senior defender Natalie Fraser stuffed home a rebound with just over a second to play in regulation.
Fraser, a native of Ottawa, Ontario, crashed the net in a late attempt to keep the game from going to overtime.
“I didn’t even realize how much time there was left on the clock,” Fraser said. “I heard [Amanda Pantaleo] yelling at [Maggie LaGue] to shoot. I was going to the net in case there was a rebound. The puck popped out, I bore down on it and buried it as hard as I could.”
Senior Brittany Howard took note of the team’s competitiveness.
“We want to win every game in regulation,” Howard said. “We didnt want to send it to overtime. The last eight seconds were crazy. It was a great idea for Natalie to crash the net.”
Brown got an early lead from Veronica Alois only 3:29 into the contest and a goal by Sam Donovan increased the Bears’ lead to two at 9:27 of the first stanza.
Howard scored the Colonials’ first goal only ten seconds after the Bears’ final tally. The teams skated to a stalemate in the second period.
Amber Rennie back-handed a shot over Brown goaltender Calla Issac at 7:29 of the third, and from that point, the Colonials took control of the game for good.
Brown chased starter Lauren Bailey after only 9:27 was elapsed on the clock in the first. The junior from stopped 9 of the 11 shots she faced to. Elijah Milne-Price relieved Bailey and earned her fourth win of the campaign, not giving up a goal on any of the nine shots she faced.
THE BIG PICTURE
The non-conference win was important for one reason for the Colonials: Brown plays in the ECAC, a conference that houses teams such as Clarkson, Quinnipiac, Colgate, and others that perennially fare well in the national rankings. Common opponents are a major factor for the PairWise rankings, a computerized ranking system that decides where a team will ranked in the NCAA postseason. Robert Morris will face Colgate in a single game on December 9th.
THE ROAD AHEAD
After finishing their series against the Bears, the Colonials will head to State College where they will open up their College Hockey America slate against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday and Sunday. Both games will have 2:00 p.m. face-offs at Pegula Ice Arena.
