Four Teams Advance to ECACHL Women's Semifinals
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Dartmouth, St. Lawrence, Harvard and Colgate have all advanced to the ECAC Hockey League women's semifinals after winning two games last weekend in the quarterfinals. All four teams swept their opponents 2-0 in the best-of-three series format. Colgate pulled off the upset of the weekend, as the No. 5 Raiders downed No. 4 Princeton to advance. The Big Green is the No. 1 seed and will host the championship round this coming weekend.
Dartmouth advanced in tournament play after downing Rensselaer twice. the Big Green earned 3-2 and 3-1 victories over the Engineers. Katie Weatherston earned Player of the Week honors after picking up seven points on the weekend, including four of the Big Green's six weekend goals. St. Lawrence downed local rival Clarkson, 3-2 and 3-1 to earn its semifinal spot. Chelsea Grills provided fire power for the Saints, scoring three goals and adding two assists on the weekend. One of her goals was the game winner on Sunday.
Harvard claimed its spot in the championship round after beating Yale 3-1 and 2-1. Brittany Martin earned both wins after making a total of 45 saves on the weekend. Teammate Katie Johnston had a goal and two assists in the series.
Colgate narrowly missed hosting its quarterfinals series with Princeton and made up for missing out on the opportunity by downing the Tigers 1-0 (ot) and 3-2.Brook Wheeler was named Goaltender of the Week after earning the shutout with 42 saves and then the sweep with 32 saves. Teammate Katie Stewart was the Rookie of the Week after scoring twice in Sunday's win.
As the top seed in the tournament, Dartmouth will face No. 5 Colgate in the first semifinal, which is slated for a 2 p.m. start this Saturday, March 3. No. 2 St. Lawrence and No. 3 Harvard will face off in the second semifinal starting at 5 p.m. that same day. Winner of the semifinal games will play in the championship game the next day, Sunday March 4 at 2 p.m. The ECAC Hockey League tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Tickets for this weekend's championship round are now on sale at the Dartmouth Box Office. Cost each day is $6 for adults and $3 for youth aged 14 and under. You can purchase tickets at the Box Office or over the phone (603-646-2466).
The weekend's games will also be available on line, as the League and Dartmouth have teamed up to provide a video webcast of both semifinals and the championship game. Links to the games will be available through www.ecachockeyleague.com and www.dartmouthsports.com. Coverage of Saturday's action will begin at 1:55 p.m. for the first semifinal and at 4:55 p.m. for the second semifinal. Sunday's championship game coverage will begin at 1:55pm. Dave Collins will handle the play-by-play with Jeremy Seidling providing color commentary.
ECACHL Player of the Week
KATIE WEATHERSTON -- Dartmouth
Sr., Forward * Thunder Bay, Ont.
Weatherston scored four of the Big Green's six goals in Game One of
the quarterfinals vs. Rennselaer. Two of her marks were PPGs. She
also had an assist. The following night, she assisted on the game's
last goal.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
BROOK WHEELER -- Colgate
Sr., Goaltender * Brussels, Ont.
Wheeler swept Princeton, making 74 saves over two games and
allowing just two goals. She had 42 saves Friday and 32 Saturday.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
KATIE STEWART -- Colgate
Fr., Forward * Exeter, Ont.
Stewart scored two goals on Saturday to help Colgate sweep
Princeton in the league quarterfinals. She now has 18 tallies on
the year.
TEAM NOTES
Clarkson: Clarkson's first senior class, the 12-member Class of 2007, closed out their collegiate careers with 69 victories and three straight appearances in the ECACHL playoffs . The Knights were on the verge of knocking off #2-seed SLU in the first game of the quarterfinal series before the Saints tallied twice in the final 75 seconds, including an extra-attacker, power-play goal to gain the 3-2 win . Three freshmen led Clarkson in scoring, paced by Genevieve Lavoie's 36 points (23-13).
Colgate: As the No. 5 seed, Colgate swept Princeton, winning a 1-0 overtime game on Friday and a 3-2 victory on Saturday. It is the first time the Raiders have won a quarterfinal series to advance to the ECAC Hockey League championship weekend ... Colgate has gone 1-1 with each of the remaining teams. The Raiders defeated Dartmouth 2-1 at Thompson Arena, topped Harvard 3-1 and St. Lawrence 3-2 both at Starr Rink ... Colgate's 17 wins this season mark the most wins in a season since the program went Division I in 2001-02 ... Colgate's game on Saturday, Feb. 24 was not only special in that it earned them a trip to the ECACHL Tournament for the first time, but it marked the Raiders' 300th varsity game ... Mallory Johnston played in her 100th career game on Friday, Feb. 23 ... Tara French set a record for most points collected by a defender in a season with 22, surpassing her own record of 20 set last season. She also moved into third in assists/career with 60 ... Katie Stewart has scored the most goals by any Colgate freshman with 18 ... Sam Hunt has tied the Colgate record for most points in a season with 39.
Dartmouth: The Big Green extended their winning streak to 11 games this weekend after sweeping Rensselaer in two games to advance to the ECACHL semifinals ... Senior Katie Weatherston recorded a five-point game on the first night of the series, netting four goals and assisting on another in Dartmouth, 6-3, win ... Sophomore Shannon Bowman also had a career day, as she posted one goal and three assists in the same game.
Harvard: Harvard has advanced to the semifinal round of the ECAC Hockey League tournament for the ninth consecutive year by virtue of its two-game sweep of Yale in the quarterfinals. Harvard will be going for its fourth straight tournament title and looks to become just the second school history to win four straight league championships (Providence, 1992-95) ... Harvard will meet St. Lawrence in the semifinal round of the ECACHL tournament for the second straight year. The Crimson is winless (0-3-2) in its last five regular-season meetings with the Saints, but has never lost a postseason game to the Saints (6-0) ... Harvard's Julie Chu remains the national scoring leader with 66 points (18-48-66) after she had a goal and an assist in the series against Yale. Chu scored the game-winning goal with 2:07 left in regulation the Game 2 win against the Bulldogs.
Princeton: Princeton finished 2006-07 with 16 wins, its fifth-highest win total in school history ... The Tigers have played in three overtime games in the postseason, and are winless in those three games ... The Princeton Senior Class of 2007 graduated with 73 career wins, the second highest total in school history ... Junior Marykate Oakley scored both of Princeton's goals over the weekend and finished the season with points in 10 of her last 12 games ... Princeton had a nine period shutout streak ended when Colgate scored in overtime of the first game of the playoff series.
Rensselaer: Rensselaer closed out its inaugural ECACHL season playing in its first league playoffs at Dartmouth ... The Engineers conclude their season with a 12-22-1 record (8-13-1 ECACHL) ... Freshman Whitney Naslund posted her first career hat trick in Friday's 6-3 loss to the Big Green . Senior Sarah Daniel finished her career with 91 points (52 goals, 39 assists) and is the all-time program leader in games played (115) ... RPI's other senior, Ciara Libaridian also concluded her career in Saturday's loss, she played in 82 games with eight points (2 goals, 6 assists).
St. Lawrence: St. Lawrence will meet Harvard in the postseason for the fourth consecutive season when the two rivals meet in the ECACHL Semifinals ... The Saints and Crimson met in the Frozen Four in 2003-04 and 2004-05 and in the conference semifinals last season, with Harvard winning each of the contests ... St. Lawrence junior forward Sabrina Harbec set the St. Lawrence single-season assist record in the Saints series-clinching victory over Clarkson by tallying her 40th helper. Meanwhile, head coach Paul Flanagan reached another milestone behind the Saints bench, earning career win No. 200 on Saturday against the Golden Knights.
Yale: Yale's season ended in the quarterfinals against Harvard with a 3-1 loss Friday and a 2-1 loss Saturday ... The Bulldogs finished with 15 wins, second-most in the 30-year history of the program ... Yale had a school-record 96 goals on the season ... Sophomore forward Crysti Howser scored her 22nd goal of the season Friday, the most by a Bulldog since 1987-88 (Maria Dennis, 24). Her 37 points are the most for a Yale player since 1985-86 (Dennis, 50) ... Yale's senior class leaves with more wins (54) than any class in school history ... The freshman and sophomore classes accounted for 52 of Yale's 96 goals on the season.
