Dartmouth Gains Lead in Standings; Colgate Moves Up
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Dartmouth remains the No. 1 women's team in the ECAC Hockey League, as the Big Green earned a weekend sweep and extended its points lead. Colgate also swept its games, and in doing so moved up two places in the standings and is now tied for second place. Four other teams split over the weekend, including Cornell, Harvard, Rensselaer and St. Lawrence. Brown also earned a league win last week.
The Big Green added to its points lead with a 4-1 win at Clarkson and a 5-4 overtime win at St. Lawrence. Gillian Apps had a goal against the Golden Knights, but it was her performance against the Saints that earned her Player of the Week honors. The senior forward took over late in the game with her team trailing to tie it up with just 18 seconds remaining in regulation. She then netted the winner in overtime, scoring at 2:18 in the extra period.
Colgate picked up its four points with a 3-0 shutout of Rensselaer and a 9-0 blanking of Union. Goaltenders Brook Wheeler and Elayna Hamashuk earned the two shutouts. Wheeler is now 6-0-0 on the year and leads the league with a 0.99 goals against average and a .957 save percentage in conference play. Forward Katie Stewart earned Rookie of the Week honors for her efforts. She had three goals and an assist over the weekend for the Raiders. Two of her goals were power-play markers.
Harvard split its weekend games, and is now in a tie with Colgate for second place in the league standings. The Crimson started things off with a one-goal loss to St. Lawrence and then finished with a one-goal win over Clarkson. Julie Chu continues to turn in outstanding performances for the Crimson, as she figured in all five of her team's weekend goals. The senior forward had an assist vs. SLU and then put two goals and two assists on the scoresheet vs. the Golden Knights.
St. Lawrence's win over Harvard gave the Saints its first regular-season series sweep of the Crimson since the 1997-98 season. Alison Domenico netted the winner late in the third period. The next day despite the loss, Chelsea Grills had a hand in all four SLU goals, with a tally of her own and three assists.
Rensselaer earned its weekend win over Cornell, while the Big Red claimed victory over Union. Allysen Weidner scored the Engineers lone, and winning, goal against Cornell. The Big Red's Beth Baronick earned Goaltender of the Week honors after posting a .981 save percentage and a 0.51 goals against average over the weekend. She made 24 saves in blanking Union and stopped 28 against Rensselaer.
Brown played just one game this past week, and it was a 6-4 win at Yale. Freshman Sasha Van Muyen led the way for the Bears with two goals and an assist in the victory.
Yale and Quinnipiac wrapped things up with non-league games, each playing Niagara and Mercyhurst. The Bulldogs dropped a tight, one-goal game to the No. 1 Lakers and then earned a 1-0 shutout against Niagara. Goaltender Shivon Zilis was faced a barrage of shots on Friday, as Mercyhurst put 55 on net. She stopped 50 of them, the most by a Yale goaltender since last March. The Bobcats saw their last game at the Northford Ice Pavilion on Friday and were shutout by Niagara. Quinnipiac then played the first-ever hockey game at its new TD Banknorth Sports Center on Saturday and was denied victory by Mercyhurst.
ECACHL Player of the Week
GILLIAN APPS -- Dartmouth
Sr., Forward * Unionville, Ont.
Apps scored the game-tying goal with 18 seconds left in regulation,
then netted the overtime winner to give the Big Green women's
hockey team a crucial win over No. 6 St. Lawrence. Apps also scored
against Clarkson.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
BETH BARONICK -- Cornell
Sr., Goaltender * Liverpool, N.Y.
Baronick logged her first shutout of the season in the Big Red's
3-0 win vs. Union on Friday, which gave Cornell its first win of
the new year.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
KATIE STEWART -- Colgate
Fr., Forward * Exeter, Ont.
Stewart had four points (3g, 1a) in two wins for the Raiders. Two
of her goals were power-play makers against Union.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: The Bears moved to 4-2-1 in their last seven ECACHL contests with its 6-4 win over Yale ... The six goals and 10 assists against Yale both were season highs ... The game marked the first time this season the Bears won while allowing more than two goals ... Hayley Moore extended her team-high point and goal streaks to nine and five games, while Erin Connors and Andrea Hunter extended their respective point streaks to six and five games.
Clarkson: The Knights are the second-least penalized team in the country being called for only 9.5 minutes per game . Three freshmen lead Clarkson in scoring, led by Genevieve Lavoie's 28 points (19 goals, 9 assists) . After winning a school-record eight games from mid-November through early January, Clarkson has fallen in a slump with just a 1-5 mark over the past six games.
Colgate: Colgate earned four points over the weekend with its second sweep of Rensselaer and Union this season. All four Raiders wins were shutouts ... The Raiders have gone 9-2-1 since Thanksgiving, and are 6-1-1 in the New Year ... Sixteen of 18 skaters collected at least one point this past weekend. Colgate has nine players in double digits in points, three in double digits in goals, and six in double digits in assists ... Brook Wheeler is tops in the league in three statistical categories. In league games, she has a 0.99 GAA, a .957 save pct. and a 1.000 win pct. with a 6-0-0 record ... Katie Stewart has five goals and two assists in the past four games ... Elin Brown had a career-best four-point game on Saturday vs. Union. She scored one goal and added three assists, to lead the Raiders in scoring.
Cornell: The Big Red snapped its seven-game losing streak Friday night when it shut out Union, 3-0, at home in Lynah Rink ... Senior goaltender Beth Baronick was in net recording her first shutout of the season ... Cornell lost a close, 1-0, game to Rensselaer on Saturday afternoon with Baronick making 28 saves ... Baronick posted a .51 GAA and a .981 save percentage on the weekend.
Dartmouth: With the sweep this past weekend, the Big Green remain unbeaten in the ECACHL since Nov. 11 ... The overtime win against St. Lawrence was Dartmouth's first overtime victory this season ... After two goals against Clarkson, Katie Weatherston is just two goals shy of hitting the 100 goal mark.
Harvard: Harvard's 2-1 loss to St. Lawrence Friday marked the Crimson's first home loss of the 2006-07 season. After rebounding to defeat Clarkson Saturday, the Crimson is now 10-1-2 at Bright Hockey Center ... Harvard was held without a power-play goal for the first time in 2006-07 in the loss to St. Lawrence, snapping a streak of 21 straight games with a power play goal ... Senior forward Julie Chu needs just six assists to tie Harvard's career record of 183, set by Jennifer Botterill '02-03
Princeton: Semester exams have wrapped up for the Tigers and they will resume action this weekend at home vs. Brown and Yale.
Quinnipiac: Quinnipiac played the first ice hockey game at the TD Banknorth Sports Center Saturday night against No. 1 Mercyhurst. The club set a home attendance record and attracted 1,714 fans despite losing 3-0 ... Saturday's game against Mercyhurst was the second time in school history that any Quinnipiac team hosted the number one ranked team in the country. The only other time any Quinnipiac team hosted the number one was on Nov. 18, 2005 when the women's ice hockey team hosted then-No. 1 St. Lawrence ... Mercyhurst was the 12th nationally-ranked opponent the Bobcats have faced this season which is a program record.
Rensselaer: Rensselaer is coming off a weekend split with Colgate and Cornell to gain sole possession of sixth place in the league standings . Freshman Whitney Naslund continues to lead the squad in scoring with 24 points (8 goals, 16 assists). She is listed 14th nationally in points per game by a rookie (0.89) . The Engineers are 15th in the nation and fifth among ECACHL teams in scoring offense (2.93 goals per game) . RPI hosts nationally-ranked Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend . The Engineers play four of their final six regular season games at home and are 17-6-2 within the confines of the Houston Field House, dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season.
St. Lawrence: St. Lawrence swept the regular season series with Harvard for the first time since the 1997-98 season ... The Saints special teams were outstanding again over the weekend, and played a major role in earning two points on one of the toughest road trips in the conference ... SLU held Harvard's nationally-prominent power-play unit without a PPG for the first time this season (0-of-5). The team then had two goals with the extra skater against Dartmouth, and again kept their opponent without a power play goal, as the Big Green finished 0-for-6.
Union: Senior Elise Nichols ranks tied for 12th place in overall goal scoring with 12 goals through 23 games... Nichols registered a career-high 14 goals in her sophomore campaign... Danielle Kimble made a career-high 29 saves in just over 31 minutes against Colgate on Saturday... Union hosts Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.
Yale: Yale had leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 against No. 1 Mercyhurst Friday before the Lakers came back to claim a 5-4 win . Goaltender Shivon Zilis made 50 saves in that game, 13 more than her previous career high . The Bulldogs are four wins shy of tying the school record, 16 . Sheila Zingler extended her point-scoring streak to 11 games on Friday vs. No. 1 Mercyhurst, but the streak was snapped Saturday . With 47 goals in conference play, Yale needs just five goals to surpass the school record in that category.
