Top Four Remain the Same in ECACHL Women's Race
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Dartmouth, Harvard, St. Lawrence and Colgate remain the top four women's teams in the ECAC Hockey League. The Big Green and Crimson swept their opponents over the weekend and continue to lead the league standings, while the Saints moved into third place after winning both of their weekend games. The Raiders had a rough weekend and dropped from a second-place tie into fourth place. Clarkson, Quinnipiac ad Yale also earned key points, as they all went 1-0-1 over the weekend.
Given the current standings, only a few things are known for sure as the playoff picture shakes out. Five teams (Colgate, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and St. Lawrence) have claimed playoff berths, and Dartmouth is the only team to have clinched home ice for the first round. We also know that Cornell and Union are out of contention.
Dartmouth and Harvard earned their weekend sweeps over Union and Rensselaer. Harvard's Jennifer Sifers earned Player of the Week honors after posting four points on the weekend, including her first career hat trick. Sarah Parsons had the Big Green's top performance, posting eight points over the two games, including a hat trick, and was named Rookie of the Week.
St. Lawrence picked up its four points with wins over Colgate and Cornell. Meaghan Guckian was named Goaltender of the Week after posting a shutout over the Raiders. Overall, she stopped 37 shots in picking up the sweep with a 1.01 goals against average.
Clarkson started off the weekend with a 1-1 draw with Cornell before earning a 1-0 shutout over Colgate. Quinnipiac and Yale tied each other, 2-2, on Friday before each earned wins the next day. The Bobcats defeated Brown, while the Bulldogs downed Princeton.
Genevieve Lavoie made Clarkson history, as she scored her 20th goal of the season on Friday, becoming the first Golden Knight to ever do so. Trudy Reyns also made some history for her Bobcats, as the sophomore blue liner became the first Quinnipiac women's player to score a goal at the new TD Banknorth Sports Center.
Yale was led by Sheila Zingler, who had a goal and three assists on the weekend.
Princeton's single win of the weekend was a 4-1 decision over Brown. Kim Pearce had three points for the Tigers in the contest with a goal and two assists.
Harvard kicks things off with a non-league game Tuesday night against Boston College in the Beanpot. Brown then plays host to Connecticut on Wednesday. A full slate of league games are on tap for this weekend.
ECACHL Player of the Week
JENNIFER SIFERS -- Harvard
Sr., Forward * Stratford, Conn.
Sifers had her first career hat trick to lead Harvard to an 8-1 win
over Union and then added an assist in the 5-1 win vs. Rensselaer.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
MEAGHAN GUCKIAN -- St. Lawrence
Jr., Goaltender * Victor, N.Y.
Guckian earned the sweep with a shutout vs. Colgate and a win vs.
Cornell. She stopped 37 shots on and posted a 1.01 GAA.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
SARAH PARSONS -- Dartmouth
Fr., Forward * Dover, Mass.
Parsons had a hat trick and five assists over the weekend as the
Big Green swept. Six of her points came against Union (3g, 3a)
TEAM NOTES
Brown: The Bears dropped both of their games this past weekend, falling to Princeton (4-1) and Quinnipiac (7-5). The losses, combined with Clarkson's three points, effectively eliminate Brown from playoff contention ... Hayley Moore extended her point streak to 11 games with an assist on Friday and a goal and assist on Saturday. She has 17 points during that span, an average of 1.55 per game ... Goalie Nicole Stock started her fourth consecutive game on Saturday, the longest such stretch for the Bears this season.
Clarkson: Clarkson snapped a three-game losing skid by taking three of four points in ECACHL play at Cheel Arena ... Three freshmen top Clarkson's scoring charts, led by Genevieve Lavoie with 31 points. Lavoie became the first-ever Clarkson player to score 20 goals, with the tying score in the 1-1 draw against Cornell. She also is only the third Golden Knight to post 30-or-more points in a season ... Clarkson's 12 seniors will play their final home games at Cheel Arena this weekend when the Knights host Princeton and Quinnipiac.
Colgate: Colgate lost its first league games since Nov. 24, falling 4-0 to St. Lawrence on Feb. 2 and 1-0 to Clarkson on Feb. 3 ... The Raiders remain in the hunt for home ice advantage for the ECACHL Quarterfinals. The squad has already secured a playoff berth, and could be seeded anywhere from first to sixth. Colgate has never earned higher than a seven seed ... Colgate next hosts nationally-ranked squads Dartmouth and Harvard, in the final home games of the regular season.
Cornell: The Big Red picked up a point with a tie against Clarkson on Friday, but was unable to have the same fortune against St. Lawrence on Saturday. Three Big Red forwards had multiple points over the weekend: Caeleigh Beerworth (1g, 2a), Brianne Schmidt (1g, 1a) and Brittany Forgues (1g, 1a) ... Goalie Beth Baronick made 52 saves in net for the weekend. The Big Red takes on Harvard and Dartmouth this week, its final home series of the season.
Dartmouth: After Katie Weatherston netted her 100th career goal, the Big Green remains atop the ECACHL standings with four league games still to play in their regular season ... Sarah Parsons is on a four-game point streak, having put up 11 points in that time. After an eight-point weekend, she is now first on the team in scoring with 39 points ... With the weekend sweep, Dartmouth clinched home ice for the first round of the ECACHL playoffs. The team is currently on a five-game unbeaten streak, which is the nation's third longest.
Harvard: Senior forward Julie Chu had points in both of Harvard's games last weekend, extending her streak to 25 straight games with at least one point ... Harvard scored a goal in the last two seconds of both of its games last weekend ... The Crimson has a busy stretch of four games in eight days ahead, beginning with Tuesday's matchup against Boston College in the first round of the Beanpot tournament. Harvard has won a record seven Beanpot titles and has reached the championship game of the last 10 tournaments.
Princeton: Princeton completed its second season sweep of Brown in three years and split its series with Yale last weekend ... Princeton gained two points on the final home-ice playoff position this weekend as the Tigers earned two points and Colgate was swept ... Senior Kim Pearce had four points (2-2) in Princeton's weekend split ... Freshman Stephanie Denino scored goals in each game over the weekend, the first two goals of her collegiate career.
Quinnipiac: Defender Trudy Reyns became the sixth sophomore to set a career high for points in a season. She did it in the 7-5 victory over Brown ... The Bobcats surpassed their point total from a year ago in league play after beating Brown. The seven goals the club scored in the game was a program record for a league game ... The Bobcats' eight game-winning goals this season have come from eight different players ... An impressive 80.2 percent of the Bobcats' scoring production has come from freshmen and sophomores.
Rensselaer: The Engineers close out the road portion of their regular season schedule with a key series at Yale and Brown ... Senior captain Sarah Daniel needs just nine points to reach 100 total in her career ... Only six Engineers have met the 100 points mark previously ... Rensselaer is the fourth-least penalized team in the nation with just 10.8 minutes per game ... Brooke Thompson's goal against the Crimson on Saturday marked her team-leading sixth PPG of the year.
St. Lawrence: The No. 4 Saints have qualified for their eighth straight ECACHL tournament, and are now five points ahead of Princeton for home ice advantage in the opening round of the conference tournament ... St. Lawrence remained unbeaten when leading after the second period (18-0-0) and when holding their opponents to two or less goals (18-0-1).
Union: Union's third-period goal against Harvard Friday marked the first goal against the Crimson in the eight-game all-time series ... The Dutchwomen also netted a goal against Dartmouth Saturday, marking the first tally against the Big Green since the 2004-05 season ... Netminder Mandy Hanson made 82 saves in two starts this weekend.
Yale: The Bulldogs are three wins shy of tying the school record (16) ... Yale enjoyed its first eight-goal weekend of the year in ECACHL play last weekend, picking up six vs. Princeton and two at Quinnipiac . The eight goals give Yale a school-record 55 in conference play and place the Bulldogs 10 behind the overall school record of 87 set in 1984-85 . Senior forward Sheila Zingler has at least one point in 13 of the last 14 games . Yale will honor its eight seniors, who have more wins (52) than any class in school history, at the final regular-season home game this Saturday against Union.
