Hamilton College scored three unanswered goals in the third period and the Continentals completed the 3-1 NESCAC comeback victory against the Amherst College Mammoths on Saturday night inside Hamilton’s Russell Sage Rink.
Both teams were playing their first game since March 2020 after the pandemic canceled the 2020-21 season.
Despite Amherst (0-1-0, 0-1-0 NESCAC) having a 32-31 shot advantage, Hamilton’s Sidney Molnar ’22 made 31 saves while keeping the guests scoreless until the third period.
The Mammoths, who were ranked eighth in the most recent USCHO.com D3 Top-10 poll, took a one goal lead 2:16 into the third period.
Hamilton (1-0, 1-0 NESCAC) started their come from behind victory by scoring twice in 17 seconds. Allie Curry ’23 tied the game at 10:38 after Nancy Loh ’23 dropped a pass back to Mya Berretta ’22 in front of the net and Curry poked it in.
Abby Smith ’24 found the back of the net for the lead at 10:55 in the third. Maura Holden ’23 picked up the loose puck from behind the net, passed it to Abby Kuhns ’23 at the top of the key and set up Smith to poke it in from in front of the net.
Curry sniped it top shelf to make it 3-1 at 14:29 in the third period. Emily Ferguson ’24 passed the puck to Kuhns behind the net in Hamilton’s end. Kuhns cleared the puck and Curry picked it up and skated it down to bury it top right corner above the goalies’ glove.
Amherst tried taking advantage of a Hamilton penalty and pulled their goalie with 1:20 remaining but were unsuccessful as the Continentals defense held them at bay to take the two-goal win.
Hamilton is back home Sunday, Nov. 21 to play Amherst again at 3 p.m.
