Weekend Preview: League Play Underway

ALBANY, N.Y. - The most favorable treat on Halloween Weekend is always the start of ECAC Women’s Ice Hockey. This year is no exception as all of 12 of the League teams are in action for the first-time in conference play.

No. 10/10 Dartmouth/Harvard at Clarkson/St. Lawrence
*The Big Green finished 22-12-0 overall, 15-7 in ECAC Hockey in 2010-11. The team reached the ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship Game and the first round of the NCAA Playoffs before being knocked out by Cornell in both tournaments.
*Ranked 10th in the country and coming off a 22-win campaign last year, Dartmouth officially opened up its season Sunday with a tough 4-3 loss at fourth-ranked Boston College.
*Sophomore Jamie Lee Rattray has been a dynamic presence up front for the Golden Knights this season. She leads the Green and Gold in scoring with 14 points on five goals and a team-high nine assists.
*Harvard is the last team in the conference to begin its regular-season while the Saints and Golden Knights have already played six and eight games, respectively.
*In 33 years of Harvard women's hockey, the Crimson is 19-12-2 in season-opening games. Harvard has opened its season on the road 13 times, going 7-5-1 in such contests.
*St. Lawrence boasts a record of 7-3 in league opening games over the last ten seasons.

Yale/Brown at No. 3/3 Cornell/Colgate
*The Big Red went 31-3-1, winning both the ECAC Hockey regular-season championship and the ECAC Hockey tournament championship. Cornell advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four, its second straight trip there (the Big Red lost to Minnesota-Duluth in triple overtime in the 2010 championship game).
*Yale's offense has put in just one goal in two games which ties it for 32nd in the country.
*Yale split the series with Colgate last year, winning 3-1 at Ingalls Rink on goals by Hughes, Bray Ketchum '11 and sophomore forward Jenna Ciotti (Manotick, Ont.). Ketchum and Raines had a pair of assists.*Cornell holds an ever-so-slight edge in the series, having two wins more than Brown. Most recently, the Big Red beat the Bears 8-0 on Feb. 11, 2011 and 3-0 earlier in the year to extend its winning streak over Brown to seven games.
*Brown is coached by Amy Bourbeau, a 1994 graduate of Providence College, who is starting her first year in charge of the Bears.
*Senior goaltender Kimberly Sass had a career-high 58 saves Colgate’s 6-2 ECAC Hockey setback to Cornell Tuesday night in Starr Rink.

Quinnipiac/Princeton at Rensselaer/Union
*Rensselaer is looking to end a four-game losing streak after starting the season 2-0-2.
*Princeton owns a 6-4-2 edge over RPI in the series and is 3-1-1 when playing at Houston Fieldhouse. The Tigers won both meetings last year taking a 2-1 game on the road and a 4-2 game at home.
*Union played its first game nearly one month ago on Sept. 30 at Minnesota. The Dutchwomen are 2-5 with wins over Sacred Heart, their only home game of the year, and Syracuse.
*Princeton is undefeated in its series with Union, 16-0. The meetings have been tighter lately, as Princeton took a 3-2 overtime win at Schenectady last November and a 3-1 game at Baker Rink in February.
*The Bobcats are surrendering 3.50 goals-per-game this season. They will look to regain the defensive form which only allowed 1.70 goals-per-contest last season, third best in the nation.
*In six non-league games this season Quinnipiac has been outshot in all but one contest. Their opponents have recorded 30-plus shots on net in three of those games.

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