College Hockey Stats Box Score
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Despite finishing with a 34-20 edge in shots on goal, the No. 2/2 Plattsburgh State women's ice hockey team fell, 4-1, to No. 5/5 Elmira College in the championship game of Norwich University's East-West Hockey Classic Monday at Kreitzberg Arena.
Plattsburgh State is ranked at No. 2 in both the USCHO.com Women's Division III Top-10 Poll and the D3hockey.com Women's Top-10 Poll, while Elmira is ranked at No. 5 in both the USCHO.com Women's Division III Top-10 Poll and the D3hockey.com Women's Top-10 Poll.
As a result of their performances during the tournament, senior goaltender Kassi Abbott (Medford, Mass./Boston Shamrocks Elite) and senior forward Courtney Moriarty (Estero, Fla./Northfield Mount Hermon) were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Senior forward Katie Granato led the Elmira offense with a hat trick, while sophomore forward Annie Katonka (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Penguins Elite) scored on the power play for the Cardinals' lone goal of the contest.
Both teams capitalized on their chances with the extra skater, as Plattsburgh State was 1-for-3 on the power play, while Elmira was 1-for-5.
Plattsburgh State drops to 11-2-0 overall with the loss and returns to Northeast Women's Hockey League (NEWHL) play on Saturday, Jan. 12, when it hosts Buffalo State for a 3 p.m. contest. Elmira rises to 10-2-1 overall with the win and returns to United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) action on Friday, Jan. 11, when it visits Manhattanville College for a 7 p.m. game.
Elmira scored on the power play 8:25 into the contest, tallying immediately after the Cardinals' first penalty in a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity released. Senior forward Shannon Strawinski passed to junior defenseman Kiana Melvin, who then fed the puck down to Granato from the high slot. Granato's shot attempt from left of the crease was initially saved with Abbott's pad, but the puck trickled past the goal line.
Freshman forward Taylor Whitney (Livonia, Mich./Little Caesars) nearly tied the game on a 2-on-1 rush at 14:51 of the first period, but Elmira's freshman goaltender Stephanie Martin turned the shot aside with a pad save.
The Soaring Eagles staked themselves to a 2-0 lead with 17:09 elapsed in the second, as freshman forward Ariella Haas netted the eventual game-winner, wristing a shot from the inside edge of the left face-off circle that hit the bottom of the cross bar and down past the goal line. Sophomore forward Devyn Gilman was credited with an assist on the play.
Granato extended the Elmira cushion to three with 10:39 gone in the third. Strawinski fed Melvin with a pass into the slot, and Melvin sent a backhanded drop pass back to Granato. Granato then wristed a shot from the slot that hit the inside part of the right post high glove side, and the puck deflected off the post past the goal line.
Katonka trimmed the gap to two with a goal just seven seconds into a power play at 14:33 of the third. Junior defenseman Hannah Kiraly (Glendale, Ariz./Northern Cyclones) passed D-to-D to sophomore defenseman Erin McArdle (Macomb, Mich./Belle Tire), and McArdle took a shot from the left point that was saved. Katonka fought through traffic at the top of the crease to bang in the rebound for her team-leading ninth goal of the year.
The Cardinals tested Martin with several quality offensive chances in the latter stages of the game, as they pulled Abbott in favor of the extra attacker with 2:11 remaining in regulation. Granato capitalized on an errant Plattsburgh State pass that went into the neutral zone, however, and she skated uncontested into the Cardinal zone and buried the empty-netter to complete the hat trick.
Abbott made 16 saves in the loss for the Cardinals, while Martin turned aside 33 shots in the win for the Soaring Eagles.