Harvard, Dartmouth, St. Lawrence and Yale Set to Challenge for ECACHL Tournament Crown and NCAA Automatic Bid
ALBANY, N.Y. -- The quarterfinal round of the ECAC Women's Hockey League Championship wrapped up over the weekend and the four teams for the semifinals have been set. Harvard, Dartmouth, St. Lawrence and Yale will all arrive in Schenectady, N.Y., this coming weekend to battle for the league crown and automatic bid to the NCAA championship.
Women's semifinal action is slated for Saturday, March 12 at Union College's Messa Rink. Game one starts at 1 p.m. and features #1 Harvard vs. #4 Yale. Game two will begin at 4 p.m. with #2 Dartmouth taking on #3 St. Lawrence.
Harvard advanced in the tournament after defeating #8 Clarkson in two games, 5-0 and 3-1. Senior forward Nicole Corriero (Thornhill, Ont.), this week's Player of the Week, became the NCAA's all-time leading goal scorer for both men and women, when she picked up three tallies for her Crimson squad over the weekend, giving her 52 goals for the season.
The Big Green also won its best-of-three series in two games with 4-0 and 3-2 victories over #7 Colgate. Junior forward Tiffany Hagge (Coon Rapids, Mich.) led the Dartmouth squad in the wins with three goals and an assist over the weekend.
St. Lawrence is the only team to go three games in the quarterfinals to earn its spot in the semis. The Saints started off the weekend with a 3-0 loss to #5 Brown but rebounded in the next two games, 3-0 and 5-2, to take the series. Four different players picked up goals over the weekend, with freshman forward Sabrina Harbec (St. Hubert, Que.) leading the way with three tallies, including two in the deciding game. Kate Michael (Leetsdale, Pa.) had the winner in game three with a power-play marker. Jess Moffat (Moose Creek, Ont.) earned Goaltender of the Week honors after backstopping the Saints to the two wins in the series.
Yale is the history maker in the final group of four, as the Bulldogs won their first-ever playoff game and has advanced to the semifinals for the first time ever. The first game of the weekend saw the team tie Princeton at 3-all on a penalty shot by Rookie of the Week Helen Resor (Greenwich, Conn.) late in the third period. The Bulldogs went on to win it 4-3 with an overtime goal by Deena Caplette. Yale then wrapped up the series with a 4-2 victory on Saturday to advance.
The championship game will be played on Sunday, March 13 at 2 p.m. The game will be televised and broadcast via the following outlets: Time Warner Albany, Time Warner Syracuse, Cox Cable (Rhode Island), CN8/Comcast (New England, Mid-Atlantic) and Adelphia Cable (Burlington, Vt., and Hanover, N.H.). Mike Rubin will serve as the play-by-play announcer, while Julie Sasner will provide the color commentary.
Follow all the action with live stats from all the games and postgame stories from all the contests online at http://www.ecachockeyleague.com/.
