Power play looks promising in Buffs’ two-win weekend
- Paxton Haines
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Colorado Buffaloes women’s hockey team (11-5-1-1) took it to the New Mexico Lobos (0-8) on Saturday and Sunday, pitching a couple of shutouts. Against a program playing its first season in the ACHA and building a full roster, Colorado took care of business.
New Mexico has only 12 skaters on the roster, but that didn’t stop them from hanging with the Buffs for most of the first period on Saturday. Colorado dictated play, but UNM goaltender Bella Luke stopped the first 12 shots she faced.
The Buffs finally broke through on the power play, 12:30 into the first, when junior forward Mia Fiscelli ripped a shot from the left circle bar-down to open the scoring. Fiscelli got her second of the game in the middle frame when she found space between the circles and snapped a turnaround shot under the blocker of Luke to make it 3-0.
Defensemen Kieran Sullivan and Sophie O’Brien netted one each as well en route to a 4-0 Buffaloes victory. The game ended with a shot differential of 46-5 in favor of Colorado. Senior goaltender Zoe Watson got credit for a shutout, albeit an uneventful one.
UNM’s Bella Luke earned the first star of the game with her 42-save performance. Colorado made her earn all of them, too. Luke denied CU’s first line countless times, showing stellar fundamentals that flash promise for the young program.
Colorado improved on Sunday. At times in game one, the Buffs played down to New Mexico’s level. That wasn’t the case in game two. Just three minutes into the first, a beautiful setup on the power play saw rookie forward Abigail Piatigorsky deflect a feed from Natalie Ewald into the back of the net.
Six minutes later, senior forward Brianna Arens took the puck from her own blue line all the way to the net, where she threw a forehand shot past Lobos goaltender Sarah Olivas to make it 2-0. Colorado’s bench erupted in celebration for their club president scoring her first of the season.
The flood of goals continued throughout for the Buffs. Fiscelli added two to her goal total, one of which was a sweet shot from the right circle that hit both posts on its way in. Forward Anna Masiello cleaned up two rebounds for her seventh and eighth on the year, and assisted two more to complete a four-point game. The Buffs finished off the Lobos in a 9-0 win with another lopsided shot differential of 45-12.
The power play hasn’t been Colorado’s forte this season, but it’s found something since the turn of the calendar to the new year. They entered January at 15% with a man up, but have scored on five of their last seven power play opportunities dating back to last Monday’s win over Denver.
CU has done an excellent job getting bodies in front of the net and generating shots to force rebounds and deflections. The first unit is rooted in Fiscelli, who plays from the blue line on the left side. The Buffs have found three points from her shots.
Credit must be given to New Mexico for weathering the storm as a new program. With only 12 skaters, many players had to be on the ice for more than half of each game. That number went down to 11 when its captain went down with an injury in the first period on Sunday. Still, the Lobos skated with Colorado all weekend and showed signs of improvement in Game 2.
The Buffs stay at second place in the Women’s Western Collegiate Hockey League, tied in points with the division-leading Utah Utes at 22 (Utah holds the tiebreaker by number of wins).
Colorado faces a more formidable opponent next weekend with a two-game series at home against the UMass Minutemen, followed by four consecutive games against Utah that may decide the WWCHL.