Team Notes: Clarkson Faces Off at Dartmouth in Quarterfinal Series

By earning a sweep on the road in the final weekend of regular-season play, the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey teams heads into the ECAC Hockey Playoffs with some much needed momentum. The Golden Knights, who are 6-2-3 since January 21, have qualified for the league’s postseason action in each of the first seven years they have been eligible. 

Guided by third-year co-head coaches Matt and Shannon Desrosiers, and assistant coach Matt Kelly, the Green and Gold finished sixth in the conference standings with a 10-8-4 league mark. 

Standing at 13-15-6 overall, Clarkson will travel to Hanover, NH this weekend to battle third-place Dartmouth College in the best-of-three game quarterfinal series at Thompson Arena. Friday’s game is a 3:30 p.m. faceoff, followed by a 2:00 p.m. game on Saturday. If the series is tied after the first two games, the teams will play a 2:00 p.m. contest on Sunday with the winner advancing to the semifinal round.

Saturday's game will be broadcast live over the radio and internet by WQTK 92.7 FM.

The Knights put an end to a five-game winless (0-2-3) stretch with a strong effort in NY’s Capital District over the weekend. On Friday, Clarkson, behind goals from junior Juana Baribeau (Amos, QUE) and freshman Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT), and an 18-save outing from rookie Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT), edged Rensselaer 2-1 in Troy. Howe picked up her second career shutout with 20 stops and Baribeau scored twice in the Knights’ 4-0 blanking of Union in Schenectady on Saturday.

Senior Melissa Waldie (Newmarket, ONT) leads a balanced Clarkson offense with 24 points on 15 goals and nine assists. The Knights’ all-time leading goal scorer, Waldie has amassed 67 goals and 54 assists for 121 points through 146 career games. Freshman Carly Mercer (Exeter, ONT), who takes a six-game point-scoring streak into the playoffs, is second in scoring with 22 points (7-15). Rattray follows right behind with 21 points, including 15 assists, while Baribeau rounds out the Green and Gold 20-point scorers with nine goals and 11 assists.

Howe has established herself as a solid Division I goaltender. Playing in 22 games, Howe posts a .931 save percentage and a 1.79 goals against average en route to a 9-5-5 record, including two shutouts. Clarkson’s all-time winningest goaltender, senior Lauren Dahm (Baldwinsville, NY) holds a .920 save percentage, a 2.59 GAA and a 4-10-1 record, including one shutout, through 15 starts. Dahm boast a career record of 49-35-12 and is tied for the Clarkson shutout mark at 20.

Closing out the regular season as the hottest team in the conference, Dartmouth finished with a 15-7 ECAC Hockey mark, and stands at 19-9 overall. The 9th-ranked Big Green are riding a five-game winning streak and have gone 10-1 since mid-January. This past weekend in Hanover, Dartmouth handed league champion Cornell its first loss of the season with a 4-2 defeat at Thompson Arena on Friday. On Saturday, the Big Green ended Colgate’s playoff hopes with a 4-3 win. Dartmouth is 10-4 at home. The only time this season, the Big Green lost back-to-back games in Hanover was on January 14-15 to Clarkson (3-2ot) and St. Lawrence (4-2).

The Series:
Dartmouth leads the all-time series against Clarkson 8-3-3, but the rivalry has been even over the past seven games at 2-2-3. The teams split the past two regular-season series, with the Knights winning both games in Hanover. In 2008-09, the teams skated to a pair of ties. The Big Green’s last win over Clarkson at Thompson Arena was a 3-1 triumph on November 24, 2007.