Clarkson Begins Defense of ECAC Hockey Title

The Golden Knights celebrate a goal in their win over St. Lawrence on October 4 - photo by Ting-Li Wang

Coming off a convincing weekend sweep to complete the season-opening, non-league portion of the schedule, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team begins defense of its ECAC Hockey Regular Season title Tuesday night by hosting archrival St. Lawrence University at Cheel Arena in the first of 22 league contests. Faceoff is 7:00 p.m.

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Guided by seventh-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and first-year assistants Meghan Duggan and Britni Smith, the Golden Knights have posted several impressive victories to start the 2014-15 campaign.

Led by junior captain Shannon MacAulay (Mt. Herbert, PEI) and classmates, assistants Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT), Renata Fast (Burlington, ONT) and Olivia Howe (Moose Jaw, SASK), a young Green and Gold squad stands at 5-3 overall and are ranked 9th in the nation. Last year, the Knights won their first league title with a 16-2-4 ECAC Hockey mark.

This past weekend in a home-and-home series with Syracuse University, Clarkson outscored the Orange 13-1. The Knights won the first game, 9-0 at Cheel and then earned a 4-1 victory in Central NY on Saturday.

Genevieve Bannon (Candiac, QUE) enjoyed a very productive weekend by recording eight points combined in the victories over Syracuse. The sophomore, center tallied her first career hat trick and added two assists in Friday's victory and then set up three goals in Saturday's win on the road. MacAulay was also strong on the weekend with seven points, including six assists. Junior Cayley Mercer (Exeter, ONT) extended her point streak to seven games with two goals and two assists against the Orange.

Bannon, Mercer and MacAulay power the Knights' offense, which ranks sixth in the country, averaging 3.62 goals per game. Bannon has 13 points (6-7), followed by Mercer with 12 (6-6) and MacAulay with 11 (4-7).

Ambrose and freshman Savannah Harmon (Downers Grove, IL) lead the Knights' scoring from the blueline with six (2-4) and five points (2-3), respectively.

Freshman Shea Tiley (Owen Sound, ONT) has seen the bulk of the playing time in the Clarkson crease and posts a .930 save percentage and a 1.47 goals against average en route to a 5-3 record, including two shutouts.
St. Lawrence owns a 3-2-1 record and swept Robert Morris is its last action on October 17-18, winning 8-2 and 3-1 in Canton. The Saints also tied Top-5 ranked Boston College 2-2 on October 11 at Appleton Arena to start a three-game unbeaten streak.

St. Lawrence leads the all-time series by a two-game margin, 17-15-4, but Clarkson has enjoyed the better of the rivalry recently, with an 8-2-1 mark over the past 11 games. The Knights are 7-0-2 against the Saints in the last nine games in Potsdam. The North Country neighbors opened the 2014-15 campaign on October 3-4 with each team posting a win at home. The Saints knocked off the Green and Gold 5-3 at Appleton Arena before Clarkson came back with a 2-1 victory at Cheel on NCAA Banner Day.

The Knights continue ECAC Hockey action this weekend, playing at Yale and Brown.

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