A game that was close in the beginning unraveled in the middle for the Suffolk University women’s hockey team, with the Rams taking a 5-1 loss to the No. 12 nationally ranked Colby College Mules on home ice Jan. 13 to drop to 5-8-1 on the season.
The Rams fell to 0-3 all time against the Mules, being outscored 19-4 in those games. It was Suffolk’s fourth loss in five games in January, with all four losses coming against New England Small College Athletic Conference teams. Suffolk’s lone win of the month came against No. 6 ranked Endicott College Jan. 10, a 3-2 upset win for the Rams.
“We didn’t play the whole 60 minutes like we needed to,” said senior captain Jenna Caballero. I think we came out, 10 minutes we played pretty strong and then we just lost the way in the middle. I think in the third period we played pretty good, we got back to the way we usually play. It’s just little things, you gotta be strong on the puck, you gotta win the little battles and I don’t think we did that tonight.”
Colby got the game’s first goal 4:36 into the match, with Megan Martodam finding the back of the net. Suffolk had an answer three minutes later when Cassie Borowski’s shot from the blue line flew through traffic and past goalie Ally Martiniello, tying the game with assists from Aiden Levee-Oshiro and Abby Sandler.
The Mules added two more goals before the first period came to an end, with Martodam scoring again and Sophia Kennedy cashing in on the power play.
Not long after the second period began, Levee-Oshiro was involved in a battle along the boards in which she got tangled up and went down awkwardly on the boards. After being down on the ice for several minutes, she was able to leave the ice with assistance, unable to put much weight on her right side. She didn’t return to the game.
Head coach Abby Ostrom didn’t have an update on her status postgame other than calling it a lower body injury.
Colby got on the board quickly once play resumed. Courtney Schumacher quickly gained the offensive zone and put one past Katelyn Michals 1:21 into the middle frame. Kennedy added a power play goal in the final minutes of the period to make it a 5-1 game.
“I think we had some good moments, just couldn’t put together a whole 60 minutes,” said Ostrom. “I think we were tired. We’ve had a really hard January coming back. This is our fourth NESCAC team in five games. The other was Endicott. They’re all top 15 teams. I think we were just tired.”
Martiniello stopped all but one of the 19 shots on goal the Rams sent her way to get the win in net for the Mules. On the other side of the ice, Michals made 26 saves on 31 shots across two periods.
When the third period began, freshman Lucy Cantin took over in net. One week removed from a 36 save game against No. 4 ranked Middlebury College, Cantin made her second career appearance and stopped all 15 shots the Mules sent her way in the final 20 minutes.
Ostrom said the move to Cantin was to give Michals a break rather than a reflection of her performance.
“I thought we were putting way too much pressure on [Michals] and she didn’t deserve that,” said Ostrom. “She’s bailed us out of way too many situations, and I didn’t want to put her through that for the third.”
Ostrom was pleased with the way Cantin performed in net and the way the Rams responded on the ice, despite being unable to put any more goals on the board.
“[I thought] a little change of pace would maybe make us play a little bit differently, and quite honestly I thought it worked,” said Ostrom. “We started managing the puck a little bit better, probably the best we did in all three periods. I thought [Michals] played great, [but] she had way too many chances against in the first two periods.”
The Rams’ January stretch of facing some of the best teams in the nation continues over the weekend, with Suffolk facing off against No. 15 Plattsburgh State University for back-to-back games. After that, they face Conference of New England rivals in Johnson & Wales University and Endicott once again to end the month.
“In order to be the best, you have to beat the best,” said Ostrom. “Plattsburgh’s good. When I was playing, they won four national championships in a row. They’re having an ‘off year,’ and still 15th in the country, so we have to be ready for them.”
Ostrom believes the team is capable of bouncing back quickly and playing a team as good as Plattsburgh very competitively.
“When we show up for 60 minutes, we can beat anyone. I think we showed that against Endicott,” said Ostrom. “With [Michals] in the net firing on all cylinders, we’re a really good hockey team.”
Caballero emphasized the importance of taking the next few days to change the focus on the team to be ready to go for an important stretch of games coming up.
“Today didn’t go the way we wanted, but we have to reset,” said Caballero. “Go home, get some sleep and something to eat and bounce back. We have a long trip [to Plattsburgh], so [we’ll] try to re-focus up.”
