AMHERST — The Middlebury College women’s hockey team earned a win and a tie this past weekend at NESCAC rival Amherst before returning home to pick up a non-conference win on Tuesday.
The Panthers improved to 6-3-1, and their 4-1-1 mark in NESCAC play is good for third place in the league behind Hamilton (4-0) and Connecticut (5-1). They are ranked No. 7 in the NCAA Division III poll and play at UMass-Boston and Endicott this weekend.
On this past Saturday Middlebury and Amherst each scored in the third period in a 1-1 tie. Although the Mammoths (5-5-1, 2-3-1 in NESCAC) outshot the Panthers in regulation, Middlebury’s Elizabeth Wulf struck for the first goal at 8:05 of the final period. Sidney Portner dug the puck out of the left corner and set up Wulf for a shot from the slot. The Mammoths tied the game on a power play with 5:43 to go, when Emma Flynn chipped in a pass from Alex Toupal.
In overtime the Panthers launched eight unanswered shots, but Mammoth goalie Bailey Plaman turned them all aside. Plaman finished with 24 saves, a total matched by Middlebury goalie Julia Neuberger.
On Friday the Panthers took a 3-0 lead on the way to a 4-2 win over Amherst, but Panther goalie Lin Han had to stop a breakaway bid by Amherst’s Emma Flynn six minutes into the game. Three minutes later Middlebury took the lead on Alexis Ryan’s her first collegiate goal, a wrist shot from the high slot into the lower left corner.
Wulf made it 2-0 early in the second period by netting her own rebound. At 2:27 Madie Leidt made it 3-0 with a one-timer from the left circle during a power play. Amherst’s Toupal tallied 28 seconds from left side of the crease.
In the final period Han stopped Amherst’s Jocelyn Hunyadi on a breakaway off the opening faceoff. The Mammoths pulled to within 3-2 with 2:27 gone, when Emma Griese scored a power-play goal from the top of the crease. Portner closed out the scoring at 7:58 with a shot from the right circle inside the far post.
Han backstopped the win with 25 saves, while two Mammoth goalies combined for 27 stops. 
On Tuesday the Panthers outshot visiting Morrisville State, 39-14, in a 4-1 win. The Panthers scored in each of the first two periods and surrendered the goal with 3.8 seconds to go in the game.
Leidt gave Middlebury the lead 2:05 into the first period after Ellie Barney forced a turnover. Anna Zumwinkle made it 2-0 at 12:30 of the first, from Wulf.
Early in the second Maddie Winslow scored a power play goal by netting a Leidt rebound. Later in the period Janka Hlinka redirected a Clare Tipler shot from the point for the Panthers’ final goal.
Middlebury goalie Anna Goldstein stopped 13 shots, and Morrisville’s Karoline Arvik made 35 saves.