A formerly perfect season has come to an end for the Buffalo State women’s hockey team.

The Bengals started 8-0 and climbed to the top of the ECAC West standings through their first eight contests, but the longest winning streak in program history was stopped abruptly by Williams College after a 5-0 loss on Saturday.

Williams struck first, four minutes into the game, as Justine Silva was beat by Olivia Stokes.

Buffalo State trailed for the rest of the period, 1-0 after struggling to find any clear shooting lanes.

The second period resulted in much of the same for Buffalo State. The Bengals struggled to stay out of the penalty box, giving up a power-play goal to give Williams a 2-0 lead as Michaela Levine scored her first of two for Williams.

Buffalo State would suffer four more penalties in the second period and struggled to find any sort of rhythm in the offensive zone.

Williams ran away with the contest in the third period. Emily Kreuger scored two goals and Levine tallied her second of the night.

Silva struggled behind a Buffalo State defense that allowed Williams to register 24 shots on goal. Silva was pulled for Megan Sackett in the third period who gave up a goal with a little more than five minutes to go.

Buffalo State finished the night with just 17 shots on goal. Prior to the loss, the Bengals had averaged about 25 shots a game.

Buffalo State is currently second in the ECAC West with 31 goals this season, but according to head coach Candice Moxley and her players, the team seemed to have lost their way against Williams.

“We are going to stay consistent with our game plan,” Moxley said. “When we execute, I believe we can skate with any team in our conference. These are important games for us and we need to pull together tighter as a team in tough games and make sure we have prepared ourselves mentally and physically to battle every second of the game.”

The Bengals’ leading scorer Erin Gehen felt the team played an individual game rather than a team game, resulting in the first loss of the season.

“This week we really need to focus in practice and push ourselves and our teammates to get our head in the game in order to be mentally prepared for this upcoming weekend,” Gehen said. “This past weekend we didn’t play as a team and it killed us.”

A tough test awaits Coach Moxley and the Bengals this coming weekend as they take on the No. 1 team in Division III hockey, Plattsburgh.

Plattsburgh is undefeated this season with a 9-0 (4-0 ECAC West) record. They are first in the conference with 48 goals and have allowed just 6 goals this season.

Silva and the defense will look to avoid the penalty woes that plagued them against Williams.

Plattsburgh’s Kayla Meneghin and Buffalo State’s Bri Carroll are tied for the ECAC West lead in power-play goals. Both teams have had success on the man advantage, so both will look to stay out of the box.

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