No. 7 Saints Ready for McGill

CANTON, N.Y. -- The puck is set to drop on the 2009-10 women's ice hockey season on Saturday afternoon, as the St. Lawrence University Saints will host the McGill University Martlets in their annual exhibition contest at Appleton Arena. St. Lawrence enters the campaign ranked No. 7 in the USA Today poll and as the slight favorite in ECAC Hockey.

Saturday will be the fourth straight year that St. Lawrence and McGill have played an exhibition contest to start the Saints' season. Though McGill has never knocked off the Scarlet and Brown, the three games have all been very competitive. After a 3-3 tie in the first meeting in 2006-07, the Saints have earned consecutive 5-2 and 5-4 wins against the Martlets. Last year, the visiting Martlets dug their way out of a three-goal deficit to tie the score at 4-4 before eventually falling by one goal.

"We're very fortunate to have a team with talent like McGill University to face in an exhibition contest to start the season," said St. Lawrence head coach Chris Wells, who is entering his second year at the helm. "We can gauge our progress and see what we need to work on before we open up next weekend against Connecticut and Providence."

Saturday's game will begin at 3:00pm at Appleton Arena and admission will be free to all fans.

The Saints will be led by four senior captains in 2009-10, including Tara Akstull, who will wear the lone "C." She will be joined by assistant captains Courtney Sawchuk, Britni Smith and Brittony Chartier in trying to lead the Saints to their seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Akstull is the top St. Lawrence scorer returning for the 2009-10 campaign, as she scored 32 points on 13 goals and 19 assists as a junior. Offensively, the Scarlet and Brown will look to junior Karell Emard and sophomores Alley Bero and Vanessa Emond to add some scoring depth alongside first-year students Kelly Sabatine, Jamie Goldsmith, Kayla Sullivan and Michelle Ng.

The Saints' defensive corps may be one of their deepest yet and will be charged with stopping some of the best offenses in the nation this season, such as Harvard, Dartmouth and Mercyhurst. Smith and Sawchuk anchor the blue line and will once again be joined this season by junior Michelle Zimmerman and sophomore Josee Belanger. First-year student Brooke Fernandez adds another strong and talented defenseman to the blue line, while junior-transfer Lauren Brozowski will add experience at the point, as she will suit up for the Scarlet and Brown for the first time after leaving the University of Connecticut.

Between the pipes, the starting job belongs to Chartier, who had an impressive debut with St. Lawrence in 2008-09. The Saskatoon, SK native played 1308:54 minutes in goal last year, earning a 24-11-3 record with a .925 save percentage and 2.04 goals against average. Chartier will be backed-up by senior Maxie Weisz, who returns to the line-up after missing last year with an injury, and junior Nikki Bongaerts, who saw time in two games during her rookie season.

"I think we're a dynamic team that has the ability to skate with anybody," said Coach Wells. "We have fantastic leaders and a young group of players that is willing and continuing to grow every single day. We're very excited to get things started on Saturday in hopes of having a very special year."

St. Lawrence is set to open the 2009-10 regular season next weekend, October 9 and 10, against Connecticut and Providence at Appleton Arena.