Weekend Preview: Teams Try To Keep Pace

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Heading into the weekend 11 of the 12 League teams are in action with 10 of those teams playing in ECAC Hockey affairs.  The teams seated near the top of the conference standings; Dartmouth, Cornell, and Princeton will attempt to break away from the others, while teams, such as Clarkson, Harvard, Rensselaer, and Quinnipiac look to position themselves near the top tier in the standings.

Princeton/Quinnipiac at No. 2/2 Cornell/Colgate:  No. 2/2 Cornell returns to the ice after a 13-day layoff, welcoming League foes Princeton, Friday afternoon and Quinnipiac, Saturday afternoon.  The Big Red, winners of six-of-seven games on the season, showcase not only one of the nation’s most potent offenses, but a stingy defense led by Amanda Mazzotta, who has played every minute in goal, recording a 1.43 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage.  Princeton leads the series, 41-30-4, though Cornell has won each of the last three meetings.  Cornell is now 5-1-1 in its last seven games against Princeton, snapping what was a 14-game Tigers winning streak.  Colgate, which is coming off a 1-1 weekend, splitting a two-game set with Niagara, will also welcome Princeton and Quinnipiac this weekend.  The top-three point leaders for Colgate are all sophomores.  Brittany Phillips leads the team with nine points off four goals and five assists while classmates Jenna Klynstra and Jordan Brickner have seven points apiece.  Klynstra has a team-high five goals and two assists and Brickner, who leads the team in assists, has one goal and six assists.  Friday's contest between Colgate and Quinnipiac will be the 20th time the two teams will face each other.  Colgate owns the series lead with a 14-2-3 record against the Bobcats.  Bobcats freshman Kelly Babstock remains atop the leader-board nationally, as her 1.93 points per game ranks her first in the country among all freshman skaters and is good for sixth in the nation.  She ranks seventh in the country with .93 goals per game and eighth in the country with 1.00 assists per game.  Babstock also leads the country with five game-winning goals.  The Tigers are led on offense by freshman Sally Butler and sophomore Corey Stearns.  Both Butler and Stearns have five points each off of three goals and two assists apiece.

Clarkson/St. Lawrence at Brown/Yale:  Clarkson and St. Lawrence travel away from the North Country to visit Brown and Yale this weekend.  Junior Juana Baribeau leads Clarkson in scoring with eight points on three goals and five assists through 12 games.  The Bears, riding a three-game unbeaten streak (2-0-1), are in the midst of a six-game homestand, playing games four and five this weekend.  Sophomore Alena Polenska who missed the last three games after returning to her native country to train with Czech Republic National Team, will return this weekend and is expected to play in both games for Brown.  St. Lawrence just had a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) snapped with a 4-1 loss at Clarkson Tuesday night.  The Saints feature one of the top freshmen in the country in forward Rylee Smith, whose 6G-3A-9PTS line through the first 12 games places her 12th in the country in points per game among rookies.  A sophomore, forward Kelly Sabatine, is second on the team in goals with five.  The Bulldogs are coming off a 4-1 win over Union last Saturday in which four different players scored goals, in the victory.  Yale's last meeting with St. Lawrence was a historic 1-0 win for the Bulldogs, their first win in the series against the Saints.

No. 9/10 Dartmouth/Harvard at Harvard/No. 9/10 Dartmouth:  Dartmouth and Harvard will play a home-and-home series this weekend.  Winners of three straight games, Dartmouth is ranked in the national polls for the first time this season.  Defender defenseman Sasha Nanji leads the Big Green offense with ten points on seven goals and three assists.  The team is averaging 3.57 goals per game, while only giving up 2.57 goals per game.  The offense has been aggressive, taking 32.1 shots per game.  Dartmouth holds the edge in the all-time series with a 33-39-2 all-time record against the Crimson.  In 18 periods of regulation hockey so far this season, Harvard has only allowed double-digit shots six times in a given period.  The Crimson was 17-2-2 when scoring first and 3-6-3 when the opponent lit the lamp first last season.

At Rensselaer, Niagara:  The Engineers host the Purple Eagles of Niagara for a pair of games before traveling to Syracuse for a two-game set over the Thanksgiving Weekend.  The series between Rensselaer and Niagara favors the Engineers by a 3-1-1 margin.  This weekend marks the second of three consecutive weekends where Niagara plays ECAC Hockey opponents.  The Purple Eagles are 57-70-17 all-time versus ECAC Hockey opponents.  The Engineers are led in scoring by rookie winger Jordan Smelker, who has a team-best six goals and two assists for eight points.  Smelker is currently fifth nationally in power-play goals with three. 

(click here for complete release)