AMHERST — The No. 3 seeded Amherst College women’s hockey beat No. 6 Connecticut College, 1-0 in overtime in the NESCAC quarterfinals at Orr Rink on Saturday.
One minute, 43 seconds into the overtime session, freshman Jillian Mazzocca secured the win for the Mammoths.
“It was awesome,” said Mazzocca, who leads the with 13 goals and 12 assists, said. “The best feeling was being able to score and then celebrate with my teammates.”
Keeping the focus on the team’s chemistry and collective hustle, Mazzocca said the goal was a full team effort.
“That goal was because of the shift before mine. It was our first line working really hard to get the puck deep, and our second line came out and finished it,” Mazzocca said.
Assistant coach Kimberly Spring said their game plan didn’t change much in overtime.
“We tried to think of it like any other game,” she said. “It was just another period, we told them to keep things simple. Sometimes, teams can try to do too much, and we haven’t had that problem, but we try to enforce not overthinking it.”
Amherst goaltender Caitlin Walker turned away 30 shots for the shutout. Connecticut College’s Carly Denora saved 23 shots.
The Mammoths (15-5-5) will play Colby in the NESCAC semifinals at Middlebury at 4 p.m. Saturday.