Last year’s Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference (DVCHC) North Division Two champions, the Montclair State University women’s ice hockey team, started the 2019-2020 season against West Chester University at Floyd Hall Arena Saturday. The game was high scoring throughout.
West Chester got the scoring started from forward Jasmine Martinez at 3:10 and 5:06 in the first period. The first goal was from a rebound off of her own shot and the second a wrist shot. The two teams would exchange two goals for the rest of the period with Martinez scoring a hat trick in the last goal of the period. Her goal made West Chester lead the scoreboard 4-2 after the first period.
The second period saw the teams again exchange two goals to put the score at 6-4. West Chester tried to put the game away at the end of the period with two goals within nine seconds. West Chester defenseman Cheyene Carlo scored on the rush with a shot from the left slot at 18:44. Martinez then scored her fourth goal with a wrist shot on the rush, but this time from the right side at 18:53 of the second period.
The game proved out of reach for the Red Hawks as West Chester scored the first two goals of the third period to make the score 10-4.
Montclair State got some insurance in the last two minutes of the game when forward Paula Bush scored twice.
The first of the two goals came at 18:21 of the third period, giving her a hat trick. She scored the first goal by poking the puck over the line in the crease, and the second came off of a good passing play on a two-on-one break with teammate Hope McGinvey.
Bush commented on the first game of the season.
“It was a nice first game back,” Bush said. “Very exciting, wasn’t expecting that, it’s good to be back.”
In the game there were only three minor penalties, two by West Chester and one by Montclair State. Neither team was able to take advantage on the power play. The goal scorers for West Chester were Martinez with six, Carlo with three and Brittany Mulholland with one.
Montclair State had two goal scorers, with Bush’s four goals and defensemen Lexie Mortez with two. West Chester had 29 shots on goal and Montclair State had 36.
West Chester’s goalie Rebekah Weissinger had a .806 save percentage and Montclair State’s goaltender Amber Astalos had a .655.
Head coach for Montclair State Dave Solomon commented on the game.
“For the first game it was good,” Solomon said. “For the first period we just had to get our feet wet. We haven’t played a game [yet], it was just practices. I was happy [to see] some good things.”
He also talked about the concern of giving up 10 goals.
“We need to play a little more passive in our own zone because we don’t have the bodies,” Solomon said. “If we play a little more passive, a little more contained and work the puck out on the outside and conserve some energy then we have a little more energy to attack with.”
The Red Hawks’ next game is at Loyola University on Friday, Oct. 11.
