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 Sammi Bowers scored her frist career hat-trick to led WSU past Quinnipiac, 5-2. |
Jan. 19, 2008
DETROIT - Sammi Bowers (Littleton, Col./Colorado Selects (North Dakota) recorded her first career hat-trick to lead the Wayne State University women's hockey team to a 5-2 win over Quinnipiac Saturday afternoon at the City Sports Arena. Win the victory, WSU improves to 12-6-2 and is now unbeaten over the last five games while Quinnipiac falls to 3-16-4.
In addition to Bowers' three goals which earned her No. 1 star of the game honors, the Warriors got tallies from juniors Melissa Boal (Pakenham, Ont./Ottawa Radiers) and Lindsay DiPietro (Manotick, Ont./Ottawa Lady Senators) who were named No. 2 and No. 3 stars of the game respectively.
For the game, WSU special teams proved to be a factor as the Warriors went 2-for-7 on the power-play with a short-handed marker. Defensively, WSU limited Quinnipiac to only 17 shots over the first two periods while holding the Bobcats to a 0-for-4 mark on the power-play. Senior Valery Turcotte (Jonquiere, Quebec/Royal Metabetchouan) picked up her seventh win of the season making 15 saves to remain unbeaten in her last five consecutive starts.
Quinnipiac was lead by Elyse Cole and Erica Bolognino who both scored goals.
The Bobcats took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Cole's tally assisted by Trudy Reyns. Wayne State responded to tie the score as Bowers was able to slam home a rebound off a shot from sophomore Brandi Frakie (St. Louis Park, Minn./Minnesota Thoroughbreds) and Tegan Schroeder (Lumsden, Sask./Notre Dame Hounds).
Quinnipiac regained the lead at the 15:45 mark of the second period as Bolognino intercepted an errant pass in the WSU zone and beat Turcotte. With a man down, sophomore Christine Jefferson (Nepean, Ont./NCCP Junior Raider WSU was able to gain control of the puck deep in the Wayne State zone and fire a pass to a streaking DiPietro who walked in on a breakaway to beat QU guile Tia Wishart for a short-handed goal.
At the 2:56 mark of the third period, Boal notched the game-winning goal on feeds from junior Sam Poyton (Hamilton, Ont./Stoney Creek Sabres) and Jefferson. Bowers stuck again stealing a pass in the slot and ripping a shot past Wishart to give the Warriors a 4-2 lead. She then wrapped up the hat trick with a power-play goal on tic-tac-toe passing from Boal and sophomore Katrina Protapapas (Chatham, Ont./Bluewater Hawks) to secure the 5-2 win.
Wayne State hits the road to begin College Hockey America conference play with a two-game series at Robert Morris Jan. 25-26. Both games are set for a 7:35 p.m. start.
