The Plattsburgh State women’s hockey team continued its dominant stretch with a 5-3 win against Amherst College last Saturday, taking the Cardinal’s overall record to 18-2.
Sophomore forward Kaitlin Drew-Mead scored a natural hat trick against the Amherst Mammoths in the first period.
PSUC tied Amherst in last season’s matchup, and because of that, gave up the home ice advantage in the NCAA tournament to Norwich.
The rematch against the Mammoths served as a reminder why every game is important for senior forward Mackenzie Millen.
“This year, we wanted to make sure we secured our spot in the [postseason] by beating them,” Millen said. “So we came in with a lot of enthusiasm that game.”
Setting Drew-Mead up for her first two goals of the night was Millen.
“She was in the right positions every time,” Millen said. “We had great chemistry the whole game.”
For her performance, Drew-Mead was named NEWHL’s Player of the Week for the first time in her career, but for this accomplished team, being named Player of the Week didn’t feel all that special to Drew-Mead
“A lot of our players are named Athlete of the Week,” she said with a chuckle.
Head coach Kevin Houle saw Drew-Mead’s performance against Amherst as confirmation of his player establishing herself on the team.
“She’s a player that has really started to come into her own this year,” he said. “As a freshman last year, she contributed, but this year she’s been playing on one of our top lines all year long.”
Looking ahead to the postseason, Houle sees complacency as a possible issue the team may run into, but the team feels ready to make another playoff run.
“Coming down with our last few games, everything has been coming together lately,” Millen said.
