Weekend Preview: Second Season Underway
ALBANY, NY -- Eight teams will begin postseason
action on four campuses this weekend in the annual Women's ECAC
Hockey Championship. ECAC Hockey showcases four nationally
ranked teams, who will all host a best-of-three series to begin the
tournament. The home teams hold a significant home-ice
advantage posting a 36-15-12 combined mark during regular-season
action.
No. 8 Cornell at No. 1 Harvard: Defending
tournament champion Harvard will play host to the Big Red in a
best-of-three quarterfinal round beginning Friday afternoon.
The Crimson, ranked No. 7 in the country have won 11-of-13 games
down the stretch which helped secure their fifth regular-season
title in the last seven seasons. Showing its high-powered
offense, Harvard swept the series with Cornell during the season by
counts of 5-1 and 5-2. This match-up marks a rematch of one
of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series from last season where
the Crimson earned back-to-back victories, 3-2 and 4-2 to advance
to the next round. Harvard has won 19 of the last 20 contests
versus Cornell. The series will feature the top three scorers
in League play this season with Crimson senior forward Sarah
Vaillancourt (20g-15a-35pts) and Cornell's high-scoring tandem of
sophomore forward Rebecca Johnston (22g-13a-35pts) and freshman
forward Catherine White (12g-21a-33pts).
No. 7 Clarkson at No. 2 St. Lawrence: The
Route 11 Rivalry will be hotter than ever as Clarkson and St.
Lawrence square-off in other quarterfinal action this weekend in
Canton. The two teams split their series this season with
each team scoring a home win by a count of 2-1. The Saints
own a record of 8-2-2 all-time against the Golden Knights, but the
Green and Gold have gone 1-1-1 against St. Lawrence in their last
three meetings. Statistically both teams are evenly matched
with Clarkson yielding 1.88 goals-per-game and St. Lawrence only
surrendering 1.90 goals-per-contest. The Saints feature 11
student-athletes that reached double-digits in scoring this season,
while the Golden Knights showcase seven.
No. 6 Rensselaer at No. 3 Princeton: Riding
a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1) ninth-ranked Princeton will host
Rensselaer in another quarterfinal set. The Tigers will be
looking to advance in the postseason tournament for the first time
since the 2004-05 season. Princeton finished the season with
an 11-1-1 stretch, which began with a sweep at nationally-ranked
Harvard and Dartmouth to start January. The Engineers took
the first meeting of the season between the teams, 3-2, but the
Tigers evened the series with a 3-1 win in the second game.
Rensselaer also finished the final weeks gaining some momentum for
the postseason, going 4-0-1 over the last few weekends posting wins
over Clarkson, Brown, Cornell and Colgate. Rookie forward
Alisa Harrsion leads the Engineers in scoring with 28 points (12g,
16a) in 33 games, while forwards senior Christine Foster
(9g-13a-22pts) and junior Melanie Wallace (6g-16a-22pts) paced the
Tigers.
No. 5 Colgate at No. 4 Dartmouth: In another
evenly matched quarterfinal series the Big Green will play host to
the Raiders. Dartmouth won the first regular-season contest
between the two squads exploding for seven goals, while Colgate
came back to earn a split two weeks ago with a 2-1 win.
Dartmouth holds a 21-3-1 all-time advantage in the series.
The two squads have met each other in the postseason five
times. Dartmouth is 9-0 against Colgate in the postseason,
sweeping the Raiders in the 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008 quarterfinal
series. The two teams faced off in the 2007 ECAC Hockey semifinals,
with the Big Green winning, 4-1. The Raiders posted a solid
stretch-run going 10-3-1 only giving up more than three goals once
during the 14-game span. Dartmouth is making its 19th
straight appearance in the postseason. The Big Green features
a high-scoring offense that ranks first among ECAC Hockey teams in
overall games netting 3.54 goals-per-game. The offense for
Dartmouth comes from all areas, as it has seven players who have
reached the 20-point plateau.
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