After a four goal night Morgan Reed now sits in second in scoring in all of Division III women’s hockey. She matched her goal total on the year in a single game in a 4-1 victory over Oswego State today. Utica College moved to 3-0 on the year in ECAC West play while the Lakers fell to 1-1-1.
Utica was the better team for the majority of the night and it showed. Tallying eight shots and a +3 rating Morgan Reed was without a doubt the first star of the game, she single handedly beat the Lakers. This huge divisional game could be the difference come the end of the year. These points early in the season are just as important as the points towards the end.
“Divisional game on our ice, it’s tough,” Coach Diane Dillon said. “Those were an important two points. I think we made some nice adjustments but we gotta be able to play the whole game like we did in the third period.”
The Lakers led in the shot chart at the end of the game, 31-25, and completely dominated the entire last 20 minutes of play. They had times of good pressure in the first two periods but it wasn’t consistent enough to knock off the red hot Utica Pioneers. All year this seemed to be the case for the Lakers. They aren’t good enough in the first two frames to get the wins they need.
“That’s what we are challenging our players with,” Dillon said. “Why are we that flat? Is it that Utica was doing something? We made some adjustments, we certainly changed our forecheck and tried to shut down the middle of the ice a little bit, changed some approaches on face-offs and it certainly helped but we have to be able to execute when we are there to make a play.”
The Lakers knew coming in that Morgan Reed and Gabrielle Schnepp were going to be factors in this one. They were two top scorers in the early part of the season and they continued that today. Morgan Reed had a hat trick in the first 40 minutes and netted the empty netter to seal the game with 25 seconds to play.
“It’s tough to shut down that line for an entire game,” Dillon said. “We were hoping to contain them a little bit, obviously they did some damage to us. Morgan is a hell of a hockey player.”
Captain Tori Torvato didn’t play her best hockey tonight but it’s tough against a player who has the second most goals in the ECAC West during conference play. She now has six on the year against conference teams. The line combination of Reed, Schnepp and Patterson was the best line all night for both teams.
“It was a tough day for Tori,” Dillon said. “The first one was a five hole goal, I think she got caught up with her stick a little bit, something she doesn’t characteristically do. I thought she made some nice saves. She’s fighting the puck a little bit just because she wants her team to win so bad.”
Oswego State has struggled to score on their chances this year but tonight they didn’t seem to get many opportunities at all. Utica took away the middle and let the Lakers keep cycling the puck down low and on the boards. Nothing in the slot was open and the Lakers had so many shots tipped or blocked in front that didn’t reach the net because of good defensive play from the Pioneers. It seems like the Lakers can’t find chemistry yet this year.
“We are looking to develop that chemistry,” Dillon said. “We have a couple new kids on [defense], defensemen are so important in this game. We are just a little off and we’ll get there. We are going to look at the way we are practicing and change a few things so we are ready to go sooner. We are going to have to demand more out of our players.”
The Lakers play the second part of their home and home tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. This a key matchup for the Lakers as they don’t want to fall too far behind in the standings early in the year.
