Weekly Release: Saints Flex Muscle
ALBANY, N.Y. - St. Lawrence won its fifth and sixth consecutive
games this weekend, having only yielded five goals in four league
games on the young season. No. 6 Dartmouth remained at the
top of league standings after another weekend of ECAC Hockey play,
despite garnering only a tie in its two games over the
weekend. Rensselaer joins the Big Green atop the league
standings after sweeping rival Union in a home-and-home
series. After two full weekends of ECAC Hockey play, more
than half of all league teams are above .500.
Nationally ranked ECAC Hockey travel partners No. 8 Harvard and No.
6 Dartmouth had a little bit of trouble with their opponents from
the North Country. The Crimson, defending regular season and
tournament champions, suffered close losses at the hands of No. 4
St. Lawrence and Clarkson. St. Lawrence solidified its place
in the national ranking by sweeping its two games and is the only
ECAC Hockey team with an unblemished league-record (4-0-0).
The Saints, under first-year head coach Chris Wells now have a
7-1-2 record on the season and only allowed one goal (3-0 &
3-1) against the two high-powered offenses of the Big Green and
Crimson. Clarkson earned a three-point weekend by blanking
Harvard 2-0 and tying Dartmouth 2-2. The Golden Knights are
now 3-3-2 against teams ranked in the top ten.
Rensselaer climbed to the top of ECAC Hockey standings this
weekend, emerging victorious over Capital Region rival Union in a
home-and-home series. Junior defenseman Lauren Gersten paved
the way for the Rensselaer scoring two goals and adding two assists
over the weekend. The Engineers only allowed one goal in
picking-up four points in conference play behind solid goaltending
efforts from sophomore Sonja van der Bliek who improved her
personal record to 6-4-1 on the season. Despite a couple of
close defeats, Union received strong goaltending play from senior
goaltender Lundy Day, who made 27 saves Saturday and 31 saves
Sunday. Union, who received a visit from former NHL player Theoren
Fleury, were playing with heavy hearts after volunteer assistant
coach George Morrison succumbed to brain cancer this week.
The team wore "GM" stickers on their helmets in remembrance of
their coach.
In the only non-conference match-ups of the weekend, Quinnipiac and
Princeton welcomed Vermont and Boston University to their campuses
for a pair of games. The Tigers gained a split in the
two-game set, while the Bobcats dropped both contests.
Princeton stifled Vermont Sunday, outshooting the Catamounts by a
margin of 31-8. Both the Bobcats and Tigers will return to
ECAC Hockey action this upcoming weekend, when they welcome St..
Lawrence and Clarkson.
Travel partners Brown and Yale ventured to the Empire State this
weekend, to take on Colgate and Cornell. All four games in
Upstate New York were exciting ones, with Cornell sweeping the
weekend and Brown gaining a split. Sophomore forward Karlee
Overguard notched the game-winner for Cornell in both of the teams
games this weekend, while classmate Rebecca Johnston had a pair of
goals in each of the Big Red's wins. The offensive outburst
earned Johnston ECAC Hockey Player-of-theWeek honors for the second
time this season. Yale fell victim to Cornell for the first
time since the 2002-2003 season. Meanwhile, Brown overtook
Colgate for the first time since the 2006-2007 season.
Colgate freshman netminder Kimberly Sass became the first Colgate
goaltender to record a victory in her first five collegiate starts
on Friday, in a 4-2 victory over Yale Friday.
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