Utica edges women's ice hockey in OT in Gold Ribbon Game

The Utica College Pioneers rallied from a 2-0 deficit and posted a 3-2 overtime win against the Hamilton College Continentals in a non-conference game played at the Clinton Arena on Friday night.

Box score

Utica (6-2-0 overall) stretched its winning streak to six games in the second annual Gold Ribbon Game for Childhood Cancer Awareness. The two teams raised nearly $4,000, which will be donated to an area teenager battling lymphoma.

Gabrielle Schnepp ’17 completed Utica's comeback with a power-play goal 44 seconds into overtime. The Pioneers, who were third among the others receiving votes in the latest USCHO.com poll, are 3-1-1 in the last five meetings with Hamilton.

Utica opened the extra session with a 5-on-3 advantage. Schnepp’s goal, her fifth of the season, came three seconds after the Continentals returned their first player from the penalty box. Vanessa Maines ’14 and Kelsey Dowdall ’15 recorded their sixth assists of the season on the game winner. Megan Myers ’14 and Louise Steele-Norton ’15 tied the score with goals 90 seconds apart in the second period after the Continentals had opened a 2-0 lead.

Stephanie Lang ’14 put the Continentals (2-4-1) ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal 8:02 into the first period. Two of Lang's three goals have come on the power play. Jill Tokarczyk ’14 and Megan Ahern ’17 were credited with assists and Ahern’s was her first collegiate point.

Teal Gosselin ’17 scored her first career goal for Hamilton 2:01 into the second period. Lang and Ianthe Lekometros ’16 recorded the assists.

Utica’s rally started 1:36 later on Myers’ team-best seventh goal. Nicole Schwartz ’15 and Nicole Keiffer ’15 were credited with assists. The Pioneers tied the score at the 5:07 mark when Steele-Norton converted passes from Emily Coope ’17 and Kristen Beckman ‘14.

Tori Bogen ’14 made 18 saves for the Continentals. Utica’s Jennifer Hamel ’14 stopped 24 shots, including eight during Hamilton’s eight power-play opportunities.

The Continentals are idle for over a month with a non-conference home game against SUNY Canton next on their schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Utica’s next game will also be against the Kangaroos as the Pioneers play at Canton on Friday, Jan. 3.