Non-League Action Aplenty for ECACHL Teams
ALBANY, N.Y. -- This past week featured ECAC Hockey League teams in 14 non-conference matchups both at home and on the road, as well as a home-and-home league series between Colgate and Cornell. The Raiders swept the Big Red to claim second place in the league standings, while St. Lawrence and Quinnipiac also swept their opponents over the weekend.
Starting with the lone league games, Colgate downed Cornell by identical 3-1 scores and is now 4-0-0 in conference play. Tara French had a two points in the series, both assists, in helping her Raiders to victory. Becky Irvine had the game winner on Saturday, while Allison Paiano netted Sunday's winner. Junior netminder Brook Wheeler earned both wins, stopping a total of 37 shots. Halina Kristalyn had a hand in both Cornell tallies, providing an assist on Saturday and netting a goal on Sunday.
St. Lawrence, which is ranked first nationally in both of this week's polls, continued its winning ways with a 6-1 win and 4-0 shutout of Connecticut over the weekend. Sabrina Harbec led the Saints (and the league) with seven points in the two games. She had a goal and four assists on Friday and added a goal and an assist on Saturday while also recording a +5 weekend rating. Her league-leading output earned her Player of the Week honors. She now has 22 points on the year, and her average of 1.69 points per game ranks third nationally.
Playing at home and on the road, Quinnipiac earned its victories over Boston College and Vermont. The Bobcats showed a lot of tenacity in the two wins, after being out-shot in both. Against BC, QU earned a 4-3 win with Vicky Graham netting the deciding goal in the second period. The Eagles made a comeback in the third, but were kept at bay, in part by goaltender Connie Craig. Craig, who was named Goaltender of the Week, turned aside 18 shots in the third and finished the game with 42 and the victory. She followed that up with a 21-save performance to blank the Catamounts 1-0 for her second shutout of the year. Antoinette Maldonado, one of the league's leading rookies, netted the lone goal of the game.
An important series on the national scene took place in New Jersey over the weekend, as No. 6 Princeton took on No. 7 Mercyhurst. Both games were battles that came down to the wire. The Lakers earned Friday's win with a last-second (literally) goal and the Tigers won Saturday with an overtime tally. Freshman Annie Greenwood had a goal for Princeton in each contest, including Saturday's game winner, just 23 seconds into the extra stanza. She was named the league's Rookie of the Week for her efforts.
ECACHL teams played in two tournaments over the weekend, with Yale and Brown playing in the Mayor's Cup in Providence and Dartmouth playing host to its own tourney.
Yale split its two games, falling to Providence by two goals before charging back the next day for a 9-1 win over Niagara. The win was the Bulldogs' first-ever over the Purple Eagles and also represented the most goals allowed and most lop-sided defeat Niagara has ever suffered. Brown wasn't as fortunate, as it fell to both the Friars and Purple Eagles. Hayley Moore was the top player for the Bears, netting two goals and an assist over the two games.
In Hanover, Dartmouth welcomed then-No. 1/2 Wisconsin, then-No. 4/5 New Hampshire and the Ottawa Raiders from Canada. The Big Green traded goals with the Badgers, but couldn't grab the lead in a 4-3 loss. Against Ottawa, Dartmouth rallied to tie the game at 3-all, scoring two goals in 15 seconds to knot it up, before the Raiders were able to regain and maintain the lead and the win.
Harvard also faced one of the top teams in the country, traveling out west to take on then-No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth. The Crimson had goals from Jennifer Raimondi and Laura Brady, as the Bulldogs swept the two games by identical 6-1 scores.
With several teams heading into final exams, there is a mixed bag of games on this week's slate with five days/nights of action around the league. The week starts off tonight, when Brown plays at Northeastern. Wednesday has Harvard at Providence for non-league play, while in the North Country, it's a battle of nationally ranked and league-leading teams, as Clarkson plays at St. Lawrence. The two teams will wrap up their home-and-home series on Friday night in Potsdam. The weekend also has Union at Harvard for two games, while Cornell and Colgate play Princeton and Quinnipiac. Yale closes out the weekend with a two-game series at Mercyhurst on Saturday and Sunday.
