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Women's Hockey March 2, 2016

Clarkson Women Strive for First ECAC Hockey Tr. Championship Crown.

PDF of weekly release (will be posted Friday night)

For the fourth straight year, the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team will play in the ECAC Hockey Semifinals, the longest such streak in school history. The Golden Knights will try to reach the ECAC Championship for the third time when they take on Colgate at Quinnipiac on Saturday.
 

Women's Championship Weekend Set
SEMIFINALS
SATURDAY, MARCH 5
No. 6 ST. LAWRENCE vs. No. 1 QUINNIPIAC - 1 P.M.
No. 4 COLGATE at No. 2 CLARKSON - 4 P.M.
CHAMPIONSHIP
SUNDAY, MARCH 6 - 2 p.m.

ECAC Semifinals and Championship Game will be streamed on ESPN3
For those fans in Canada, the championship game is definitely going to be streamed on TSN Go. Semifinals will either be on TSN GO or BoxCast geo-targeted for Canada.

Led by eighth-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and second-year assistant coaches Britni Smith and Meghan Duggan, the Golden Knights finished the regular season with a 26-3-5 overall record and a 14-3-5 ECAC Hockey record, good enough for the second seed in the conference playoffs. The Green and Gold added two wins to their total in a home sweep of Cornell in the ECAC Quarterfinals. Clarkson is now unbeaten in 17 straight games, which is tied for the second longest active streak in the nation.

• ECAC Hockey standings
• USCHO.com Poll
• USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll
• NCAA Pairwise Rankings

In the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, the second seeded Golden Knights played host to seventh seeded Cornell. The Big Red had knocked Clarkson out of the ECAC Hockey playoffs the past two years in Cheel Arena, including in the 2014 ECAC Championship. However, a 2-0 win on Friday followed by a hard fought 5-2 victory on Saturday gave Clarkson a sweep in the best-of-three series. The win snapped Cornell's six year streak of appearing in the ECAC Championship and improved Clarkson's record to 6-1 in quarterfinal series played in Cheel Arena.

In the month of February, junior Genevieve Bannon has been one of the most productive players in ECAC Hockey. She has 12 points in eight games in February. Bannon had the game-winning goal in the 2-0 win and an assist in the 5-2 win over Cornell. She is now tied for second on the team with 37 points on 11 goals and a team-high 26 assists. Bannon also sits at 96 career points.

Freshmen Loren Gabel also had a strong February, one that was good enough to earn her the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Month award for February. Gabel was first in the conference in rookie goals in February, with six. Three of those came in the 7-0 win over Brown on February 19th  and was the first freshmen hat trick for a Clarkson player since 2008. Overall, Gabel is second in the country in freshmen goal scoring.

Clarkson's last loss came on December 4th , when the Golden Knights dropped a 4-3 overtime game to upcoming opponent Colgate. Since then, Clarkson is unbeaten in 17 straight games with a 14-0-3 record in that span. Clarkson has outscored opponents 69-21 in the 17 games, with five shutouts. Bannon is fourth in ECAC Hockey in points per game in that span with junior assistant captain Cayley Mercer and senior assistant captain Erin Ambrose tied for eighth. Senior assistant captain Olivia Howe is just behind them in tenth.

The senior class led the way against Cornell, with the four skaters picking up nine points between them in the two games. Ambrose was the points leader with four assists, all of them coming in the 5-2 win on Saturday. It is the second time in her career that Ambrose has notched four assists in a game and becomes just the second Clarkson player with 100 career assists. Ambrose has 102 career helpers, just two behind former teammate Jamie Lee Rattray '14 for first all-time. Howe also reached a milestone when a goal and an assist in the second game gave her 100 career points. She is the 11th  player to reach the century club. Nearing that same mark is senior captain Shannon MacAulay, who picked up two assists on Saturday to tally her 96th  and 97th  career points. Finally, senior assistant captain Renata Fast scored an empty net goal to prevent any Cornell comebacks on Saturday.    

Colgate finished the regular season with a 20-7-7 overall record and a 12-5-5 conference mark. The Raiders earned the fourth seed and played host to fifth seeded Harvard in the quarterfinals. Colgate opened the series with a 4-1 win, but a Harvard victory by the same scoreline created the need for a winner take all game three. The two teams finished regulation tied at 2, before Shae Labbe scored 14:45 into overtime to send Colgate to the semifinals for the first time since 2007. That was the only prior appearance in the semifinals for Colgate, who is looking to reach the championship game for the first time in program history. Colgate is one of only three teams to defeat Clarkson this year and is the last time to perform the feat. However, after a 4-3 overtime Colgate win in the two teams' first meeting, Clarkson bounced back and beat the Raiders 3-2 in the second meeting. Overall, Clarkson has a 14-8-4 record against Colgate and has won six of the last seven meetings.

Quinnipiac earned its first regular season ECAC Hockey title by going 16-2-4 in conference to go along with a 26-2-5 overall record. Although the first seeded Bobcats swept eighth seed Rensselaer in the quarterfinals, the series was extremely close with Quinnipiac needing overtime and double overtime to win the two games. Emma Woods scored a pair of goals in Friday's 3-2 win, including the game-winner while Nicole Brown scored the game-winner 13:24 into double overtime in Saturday's 2-1 win. Quinnipiac has reached the semifinals five of the last six seasons, but has been unable to reach the first final in program history. The only season in that span that the Bobcats have not reached the semifinal round was also the last time Quinnipiac met St. Lawrence in postseason play, with the Saints winning two out of three at Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals. This season though, Quinnipiac has had little trouble with St. Lawrence, beating the Saints by the scores of 5-0 and 3-0.

St. Lawrence was the only road team to win its quarterfinal series. The Saints, who were the sixth seed by virtue of their 15-13-6 overall and 9-8-5 conference record, traveled to third seeded Princeton and came away with a three game series win. After winning the opener 1-0, St. Lawrence dropped game 2 by the score of 4-3. The final game had its share of dramatics as St. Lawrence saw Princeton tie the game at 3 with just 15 seconds remaining in the third period. St. Lawrence did not fold though and Justine Reyes scored the game-winning goal 5:37 into the overtime period. St. Lawrence is the only semifinalist with an ECAC Championship to their name, with the Saints' most recent triumph coming in 2012. St. Lawrence defeated Quinnipiac in the 2013 ECAC quarterfinals, which is the last time that St. Lawrence has reached the semifinal round. St. Lawrence will need to defeat Quinnipiac for the first time this season in order to reach the final, as the Saints are 0-2 against the Bobcats this season.  
 
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Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

D
5' 5"
Senior
Genevieve Bannon

#9 Genevieve Bannon

F
5' 8"
Junior
Renata Fast

#12 Renata Fast

D
5' 7"
Senior
Olivia Howe

#16 Olivia Howe

F
5' 10"
Senior
Shannon MacAulay

#4 Shannon MacAulay

F
5' 11"
Senior
Cayley Mercer

#18 Cayley Mercer

F
5' 8"
Junior
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

F
5' 4"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

5' 5"
Senior
D
Genevieve Bannon

#9 Genevieve Bannon

5' 8"
Junior
F
Renata Fast

#12 Renata Fast

5' 7"
Senior
D
Olivia Howe

#16 Olivia Howe

5' 10"
Senior
F
Shannon MacAulay

#4 Shannon MacAulay

5' 11"
Senior
F
Cayley Mercer

#18 Cayley Mercer

5' 8"
Junior
F
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

5' 4"
Freshman
F