RUTLAND, Vt. – Alex Johnson bagged a golden goal to help the Castleton women's hockey team claim their first New England Hockey Conference victory of the season over New England College, 4-3, in overtime Saturday afternoon.
Johnson was one of four Spartan (3-1-0, 1-1-0 NEHC) goal-scorers as Alexandra Snow, Darby Palisi, and Rainey Lay added tallies. Lay's third-period goal was the first of the Highland, Utah native's four-game career. Julia Carpenter, Brooke Greenwood, Samantha Lawler, and Emery Bonner collected points on assists. Izabella Segui went 27-of-30 between the pipes, improving to 2-0 on the season.
The Spartans recovered from a pair of unsuccessful NEC (2-3-0, 0-3-0) power plays to light up the scoreboard midway through the first period as Carpenter found Snow for her second goal of the year to take a 1-0 advantage. Greenwood won a quartet of faceoffs, the final which found Palisi's stick in the 15th minute as the senior forward buried the power-play goal to pad the lead. NEC retaliated less than a minute later when Emily Lenzen got help from AK Fuentes and Mikayla Vincent to bring the 'Grims back within a score.
The goal-laden first period set up a chippy second stanza as the squads combined for six penalties including a Spartan major penalty and disqualification. The Pilgrims made use of the power play that became a two-man advantage, pocketing the equalizer on Olivia Lindberg's 36th-minute score.
Six minutes into the final period, NEC got their first lead of the game with a Kaiya Rodriguez goal while the Pilgrims were on another two-man advantage power play. With 5:45 to go, NEC attempted to clear the puck out of a scrum but freshman Lay intercepted it and fired from the blue line moments later to pick up her first career score. No more pucks found paydirt, so the contest entered overtime.
Benefitting from a minor penalty just before the end of regulation, the 'Grims had a one-man advantage for 1:46 but would not convert. In the game's 64th minute, Bonner distributed the puck to Johnson and created a breakaway as the Andover, Mass. native found net for the golden goal and her third career strike.
The Spartans hit the road for their next match, an NEHC contest against Southern Maine on Friday, November 18. Puck drop against the Huskies is scheduled for 6 p.m.
