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Women's Hockey

Knights Back Where They Belong

photo by Connor Koehler

Defending National Champion, Clarkson University is back at the Frozen Four for the third consecutive year and for the fourth time in the past five seasons. The Golden Knights are striving to win the NCAA title for the third time in the program's 15-year history, having already raised a championship banner to the Cheel Arena rafters in 2014 and 2017.

Guided by ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year, Matt Desrosiers, now in his 10th year behind the Clarkson bench, and assistants Britni Smith and Tony Maci, the Knights enter the 2018 Frozen Four as the number one team in the nation with a 34-4-1 overall record.

Clarkson advances after defeating Mercyhurst 2-1 in overtime in a hard-fought quarterfinal game in Potsdam this past Saturday.

The Green and Gold, led by senior captain Savannah Harmon and assistant captains Lauren Lefler, Amanda Titus, Shea Tiley and Cassidy Vinkle, won their fourth ECAC Hockey regular-season title, with a 19-3 league mark. Clarkson went on to claim its second straight conference tournament championship two weeks ago.

Clarkson will be vying with WCHA foes Ohio State and #2 Wisconsin, and ECAC Hockey rival #4 Colgate this weekend at Ridder Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota. The Knights will face off for the first time ever against Ohio State in the first semifinal game on Friday, starting at 5:00 p.m. EST.  The Badgers and Raiders will meet up in the other semifinal contest, slated for an 8:00 p.m. EST start.

Friday winners will square off on Sunday, beginning at 3:00 p.m. EST to determine who will be crowned the champion of the 18th NCAA Women's ice Hockey Championship.
Women's NCAA Frozen Four games will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Clarkson will be striving for its third national title in the past five years, while Wisconsin will be looking to add its fifth to the Badger's trophy case. Ohio State and Colgate are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
• Live Video Streaming on BTN 
 
• Live updates on NCAA.com  
• Live Audio Streaming on B99.3
• Live Stats
• 2018 NCAA Women's Hockey Frozen Four website
• NCAA Women's Hockey digital game program
• NCAA Bracket (printable PDF)
• NCAA Bracket (online)
• Clarkson Women's Hockey media packet (PDF)

• Clarkson is 8-4 in the NCAA Tournament, including a 2-1 mark in the semifinals. In its first ever semifinal showing, the Knights defeated Mercyhurst 5-1 in 2014 and knocked off Minnesota 4-3 last year. The Green and Gold fell to Boston College 3-2 in overtime of the 2016 semifinals. Clarkson has gone 3-0 in quarterfinal round play at Cheel Arena. The first two times they won a NCAA Tournament game at home, the Knights went on to win the National Championship. 
• The Knights own the longest current winning streak in the country at eight games, seven more than any of the other three semifinalists. The Green and Gold have won 23 of their last 24 games.
• Clarkson's 34 wins is the most in a single season for the program and two more than last year's NCAA Championship squad.
• The Knights have posted seven consecutive seasons of over 20 victories and four 30-win campaigns, including the last three years.
• Through Clarkson's 15-year history as a Division I program, the Knights have compiled an all-time record of 347-159-59 for a .666 winning percentage. 
• Clarkson claimed its fourth ECAC Hockey Regular Season Championship with a 19-3 league mark, sharing the title with Colgate. The Knights earned the No. 1 seed for the conference playoffs by virtue of a better record against the top four teams in the league than the Raiders.
• Clarkson boasts the third-ranked defense in the country, allowing only 1.21 goals per game, and is fourth in offense, scoring 3.97 goals per game.
• Through five postseason games, the Green and Gold Gold have outscored their opponents 23-5. Overall, Clarkson is second in the NCAA in scoring margin (2.77).
• Clarkson is second in the country in combined specialty teams play at 59.1% (175/296). The Knights rank third on the power play (25.4%, 36-142) and third in
penalty-kill (90.3%, 139-154). Clarkson has gone 7-of-18 (39%) on the man-advantage and killed off 13-of-14 (92.8%) opponent power plays in the postseason.
• The Knights have gone 10-1-1 against Top-10 ranked teams this year. The lone loss was a 4-3 overtime setback to Colgate (10/27).
• Clarkson posts a 15-2-1 recordaway from Cheel Arena with its only two road losses coming at Vermont (11/10) and at Princeton (2/9).
• The Knights are 28-1 when scoring first, 27-1 when leading through 40 minutes and 33-3 when outshooting opponents.
• Clarkson is 19-0-0 in games decided by three-or-more goals. The Knights have scored six-or-more goals in six games.
• Clarkson is winless in its three games at Ridder Arena. In the Knights' last appearance at Minnesota, the Green and Gold fell to the Gophers 3-2 in overtime in the 2010 NCAA quarterfinals. The Knights trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes, but battled back and tied the game on a goal by Juana Baribeau '12 with 1:44 remaining in the third period. 
• One of the top lines in the country powers the Clarkson offense. The trio of sophomore center Michaela Pejzlova, junior left wing Loren Gabel and freshman right wing Elizabeth Giguere has accounted for 49.1% of the Knights' scoring with 197 (87-110) of the team's 401(155-246) points. Gabel,  Giguere and Pejzlova are the top three scorers in ECAC Hockey.
• A Top-3 Finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, Gabel is enjoying a record-setting year for the Green and Gold. Third in the nation in scoring, and third in goals per game, she has set new single-season marks for points and goals at Clarkson, both previously held by 2014 Patty Kamaizer winner Jamie Lee Rattray '14. Gabel has tallied 74 points on 35 goals and 39 assists. She ranks sixth on the Knights' all-time scoring list with 143 points (75-68) through 120 games. She was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Year.  Gabel has tallied 13 points (6-7) in five postseason games this year. She set the record for fastest hat trick, scoring three times in a span of 2:21 in the opening 4:12 of the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal Game 1 win over Yale. The three-goal outing gave her four career hat tricks, a new Clarkson record. She also tallied three assists in the lopsided 10-1 victory to give her six points on the night, tying the Knights' record for most points in a game. Gabel leads the nation in plus/minus at +57.
• Nearly doubling the point total off all the other ECAC Hockey freshmen, Giguere has made a big impression in her first collegiate season. Named conference Rookie of the Year, she has shattered the Clarkson freshman scoring marks with 69 points on 26 goals and is the nation's second-leading playmaker with 43 assists. Giguere posts a +51 plus/minus and has tallied five power-play goals and five game-winners. Her biggest goal of the season was her last. Giguere scored the deciding goal at 16:52 of overtime in Saturday's 2-1 NCAA Quarterfinal victory over Mercyhurst.
• Pejzlova centers one of the top lines in the country and is the Knights' third-leading scorer with 54 points (25-27). A second-team ECAC Hockey All-Star, she is closing in on the century mark, averaging over a point per game with 37 goals and 49 assists through 76 career games. Pejzlova recorded six goals and 11 points this postseason. She was selected Most Outstanding Player of the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament after recording three goals and two assists over the league's championship weekend at Cheel Arena.
• Tiley backstops Clarkson's stingy defense as one of the top goaltenders in the nation. She has started 38 of the 39 games, playing the second most minutes (2261:25) of all Division I goatlenders.  Named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year for the second time in her career, Tiley leads the country in victories (33) and winning percentage (.882) and is tied for most shutouts (11).  She ranks second in Division I in goals against average (1.25) and third in save percentage (.942). Tiley has allowed only five goals in the postseason and just six goals over the last eight games. Since February 10, she has given up more than one goal in a game just once (two in 4-2 victory over St. Lawrence in ECAC semifinals on March 3).
 • Clarkson's captain, Harmon was honored as ECAC Hockey's Best Defenseman for the second consecutive year. She leads the nation's defensemen in plus/minus +51 and is tied for third in scoring from the blueline with 32 points, including 24 assists. Harmon is the second Clarkson defenseman all-time to reach the century mark in scoring with 113 career points on 30 goals and 83 assists through 158 games. She joins fellow defender Erin Ambrose '16 in the Green and Gold's 100-point club.
• An unheralded Clarkson forward, junior Rhyen McGill is Clarkson's fifth-leading scorer with 26 points on 18 goals and eight assists.
She has tallied seven times on the power-play, notched six game-winners and one shorthanded marker.  McGill is approaching the century mark with 82 career points (41-41) through 119 games. She recorded her first career hat trick in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal Game 2, 4-1 win over Yale (2/24). McGill scored the winning goal and had an assist in 4-3 win over Minnesota in last year's NCAA Semifinals (3/17) in St. Charles, MO.
• A standout two-way defender, sophomore defenseman Ella Shelton excells at both ends of the ice. She is second in scoring from the blueline and sixth overall for the Knights in scoring with 25 points, including 20 assists, and posts a +48 plus/minus rating. She enjoyed her first career two-goal outing, scoring twice in the Game 1 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal 10-1 win over Yale (2/23). 
• Similar to the ECAC Hockey all-league all-star awards, Clarkson also dominated the conference championship All-Tournament Team, placing five players on the six member all-star team. The Knights' sophomore center Michaela Pejzlova also earned Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Joining Pejzlova on the all-tournament team were junior forward Loren Gabel, senior defenseman Savannah Harmon, sophomore defenseman Ella Shelton and senior goaltender Shea Tiley
• One of the top players in the history of the Clarkson University Women's Hockey program, Renata Fast '16 participated for the Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey team in PyeongChang, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympic Hockey Tournament. Fast played in 144 career games for the Golden Knights, recording 13 goals and 44 assists to go along with a +81 plus/minus rating from 2012-16. She played a key role on Clarkson's 2014 NCAA National Championship team and was named to the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament team. Fast lived up to her surname by scoring the quickest goal in NCAA Tournament history, just 10 seconds in for the game-winner against Quinnipiac in the NCAA quarterfinal game (3/12/16).

 
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Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

D
5' 5"
Junior
Renata Fast

#12 Renata Fast

D
5' 7"
Junior
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

F
5' 4"
Junior
Savannah Harmon

#14 Savannah Harmon

D
5' 3"
Senior
Lauren Lefler

#8 Lauren Lefler

F
5' 8"
Senior
Rhyen McGill

#25 Rhyen McGill

F
5' 8"
Junior
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

F
5' 6"
Sophomore
Ella Shelton

#11 Ella Shelton

D
5' 8"
Sophomore
Shea Tiley

#35 Shea Tiley

G
5' 10"
Senior
Amanda Titus

#15 Amanda Titus

F
5' 7"
Senior
Cassidy Vinkle

#22 Cassidy Vinkle

F
5' 7"
Junior
Elizabeth Giguere

#7 Elizabeth Giguere

F
5' 10"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

5' 5"
Junior
D
Renata Fast

#12 Renata Fast

5' 7"
Junior
D
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

5' 4"
Junior
F
Savannah Harmon

#14 Savannah Harmon

5' 3"
Senior
D
Lauren Lefler

#8 Lauren Lefler

5' 8"
Senior
F
Rhyen McGill

#25 Rhyen McGill

5' 8"
Junior
F
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

5' 6"
Sophomore
F
Ella Shelton

#11 Ella Shelton

5' 8"
Sophomore
D
Shea Tiley

#35 Shea Tiley

5' 10"
Senior
G
Amanda Titus

#15 Amanda Titus

5' 7"
Senior
F
Cassidy Vinkle

#22 Cassidy Vinkle

5' 7"
Junior
F
Elizabeth Giguere

#7 Elizabeth Giguere

5' 10"
Freshman
F