The fourth-ranked Middlebury women's ice hockey team began its weekend series against #2 Amherst with a 1-1 tie. Caroline Thomas logged the lone successful attempt in the fifth round of Saturday's shootout.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Mammoths tested Panther goalie Sophia Will early. Natalie Fu and Marie-Eve Marleau tallied consecutive bids 49 seconds apart in the opening period, but the senior turned away each chance to hold the 0-0 score at the 2:17 mark.
• With 13:56 to play in the stanza, Alyssa Frazier fired a pair of shots from between the faceoff circles. Amherst netminder Natalie Stott denied the attempts with her right blocker.
• Middlebury applied pressure on the edge of the crease with 9:13 expired. Frazier had a bid blocked by Emily Hohmann before Zoe Pincelli skated to the puck and flicked a wrister that Stott ushered away.
• Bea Flynn created her own shot with 3:51 to go in the stanza, spinning around a defender and aiming for the lower-right corner. Will extended her stick to push the puck out of harm's way.
• Susannah Ward recorded two chances in the final six seconds of the stanza, the first being saved by Stott before Clare O'Connor blocked the second to maintain the scoreless game.
• Annabel Raffin nearly pushed the Mammoths in front with 7:07 expired in the second period. She capitalized on the space between the circles with an extra skater and thumped a close-range bid off Will's glove.
• The Panthers nabbed the first goal with 9:10 left in the second session. Thomas skated to a scrum in front of the goal and nudged the puck through the crowd to gain a 1-0 advantage.
• Olivia McManus nearly doubled the advantage 2:25 later, skating to the right edge of the crease and deking to her backhand that Stott shut off with her blocker.
• With just 13 seconds to play in the frame, Gretchen Dann had an excellent chance to knot the contest. She nabbed a loose puck off the boards and positioned directly in front of Will for a one-on-one chance that the Panther smothered with her body.
• Marleau and Ayla Abban looked to tie the bout in the first minute of the third period, with each skater logging a point-blank bid that Will snuffed out.
• Hohmann found the best opportunity during a Middlebury penalty on a riser from the left faceoff circle that Will snagged to maintain the one-goal edge at the 11:57 mark.
• Will answered the call once again with 5:56 remaining, laying out to deny consecutive shots on opposite posts from Abban and Raffin.
• Flynn found the look her side needed with 17:15 gone, dialing up a shot from just inside the blue line that sizzled into the right side of the net to tie the tilt at 1-1 and send the NESCAC bout to overtime.
• Dann and Marleau tallied back-to-back dangerous chances in the first 44 seconds of the extra session. Marleau provided a greater scare as her shot was deflected, but hovered in the crease for an extra beat before Will swept it away.
• Stott stonewalled a surefire winner with 1:05 left in the additional period, dropping to the butterfly with an extended right pad to thwart Frazier's shot headed for the bottom-right corner. The save secured the 1-1 tie and pushed the game into a shootout.
• The goalies continued their stellar play, blanking the opposition through the initial four rounds. Thomas opened the fifth round, faking each direction before shoveling her bid over Stott's shoulder for the eventual shootout-clinching finish.

NOTES

• Thomas netted her 10th goal of the campaign.
• McInerny tallied a career-high 19 faceoff wins in the top-five battle.
• Will tallied 36 saves in the contest, 10 more than her prior season high.
• Saturday's battle was the 70th between the programs in the all-time series with Middlebury holding a 39-14-17 advantage.

The Panthers finish the weekend series against the Mammoths on Sunday at 3:00 p.m.