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WChamps18

Two-Time ECAC Hockey Tournament Champs Back to Defend Titles

3/5/2019 3:40:00 PM

Two-time defending ECAC Hockey Tournament Champions, Clarkson University is back at the league's showcase event looking for its third consecutive conference postseason title. Advancing to the semifinal round for the seventh consecutive season, the Golden Knights will battle Colgate, Princeton and host Cornell for the ECAC Hockey Tournament crown at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, NY on Saturday and Sunday.

The No. 3 seed in the tournament, Clarkson will face off against No. 2 seed Colgate in the second semifinal game on Saturday, slated for a 4:00 p.m. start. The Knights and Raiders battled in last year's title game with the Green and Gold winning 3-0 at Cheel Arena. Clarkson and Colgate also played in last year's NCAA Championship game with the Knights' winning 2-1 in overtime. No. 1 seed Cornell will take on No. 4 seed Princeton at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The semifinal winners will meet in Sunday's championship game, beginning at 2:00 p.m.

Clarkson vs Colgate - ECAC Championship Tournament release 
ECAC Hockey
USCHO.com Poll
USA Today Poll
NCAA Pairwise Rankings
Kaz Watch: Clarkson's Loren Gabel Again in Hunt for Patty Kazmaier Award
Kaz Watch: Clarkson's Elizabeth Giguere Named a Top-10 Finalist for Award
Coaches Corner with Mike Vaillancourt, B99.3 radio 

• Guided by 11th-year Head Coach Matt Desrosiers and assistants Britni Smith and Tony Maci, Clarkson tied for second in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 16-5-1 league mark. Ranked 4th in the national polls, the Green and Gold are three wins shy of their fourth consecutive 30-win campaign with a 27-7-2 overall record.
• Clarkson, which has qualified for the ECAC Hockey playoffs in every year it has been eligible, is 28-20 in 15 seasons of league postseason play. The Knights are 21-14 in the quarterfinal round having won nine of their 15 series, including the past seven. Clarkson advances to its ninth conference championship tournament after sweeping Quinnipiac (3-0, 4-3 ot) in quarterfinal action at Cheel this past weekend. 
• The Knights are 5-3 in semifinal play and 2-3 in championship tilts.
• Clarkson has won 10 straight ECAC Hockey postseason games, outscoring its opponents 42-10 since losing the 2016 championship game to Quinnipiac. 1-0.
• The Knights are 0-2 in postseason action at Lynah Rink, having loss the 2010 Championship game 4-3 to Cornell, and dropping a 2013 semifinal game 4-2 to Harvard.
• Clarkson owns a 21-11-4 advantage over Colgate, however, the Knights dropped both regular-season matchups this season to the Raiders. In the first game,  the Raiders skated to a 4-1 win over Clarkson in Hamilton, NY on November 30. In the second game, Colgate tallied a third-period power-play goal to send the game into overtime where the Raiders scored in the opening minute of the extra session for the 4-3 win at Cheel Arena on February 9.
 • Clarkson has never lost to Colgate in the postseason, going 2-0 in the ECAC Hockey playoffs and 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament. The Knights defeated the Raiders in last year's league championship game, 3-0 at Cheel Arena and 5-0 in the 2016 conference semifinals in Hamden, CT. Clarkson also won the biggest game of the year in 2017-18 with a 2-1 OT triumph over Colgate in last year's NCAA Championship game.
• The last time Clarkson lost three games in one season to the same team was during the 2014-15 campaign when Quinnipiac went 3-0 against the Knights.
• The Knights have played five overtime games in their last seven outings, going 2-2-1 in the extra sessions. For the season, Clarkson is 3-3-2 in overtime games. 
• Clarkson owns the second most potent offense in Division I, averaging 3.75 goals.
• Defensively the Green and Gold are fifth in Division I, allowing only 1.83 goals.
• The Knights' scoring margin is third in the country at 1.92.
• Headlining the Green and Gold attack are three of the top six scorers in Division I, including a pair of Top 10 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Finalists. Senior left wing Loren Gabel leads the nation in goals with 37 and and is second in points (66). Sophomore linemate, right wing Elizabeth Giguere tops Division I in points with 68 and is the nation's leading player maker with 44 assists. Junior center Michaela Pejzlova is tied for sixth in the NCAA in points with 52.
• Making up arguably the top line ever in women's college hockey, the Clarkson trio has combined for 80 goals and 106 assists for 186 points. That is more goals than 17 other Division I teams, including seven ECAC Hockey squads, more assists than seven teams (four in ECAC) and more points than 12 other teams (six in ECAC).
• Averaging almost two points per game, Gabel, a Top 3 Finalist for the Patty Kazmaier for the second year in a row,  has tallied 66 points (37-29) through 34 games. She leads the country in game-winning goals, connecting for her ninth deciding goal of the season with 4.9 seconds left in the 3-2 overtime victory at Harvard (2/16).  Gabel scored her third goal of this year's playoffs with 1.1 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime on Saturday in Game 2 of the quarterfinals vs Quinnipiac and then recorded her fifth point of the series by setting up Giguere's game-winner midway through the extra session. Through 156 career games, Gabel has amassed 210 points on 113 goals and 97 assists as the Green and Gold's all-time leading scorer. 
• Giguere has recorded 24 goals and 44 assists through 36 games. She is steadily moving up the Clarkson all-time scoring lists and looks to challenge Gabel's records before her collegiate career is over. Through just 77 games, she has tallied 139 points on 51 goals and 88 assists. Giguere has scored a Clarkson record five shorthanded goals this season. Only two teams, other than Clarkson have more shorthanded goals than Giguere - Cornell and Boston College with six. She has also tallied three power-play goals, four game-winners and posts a nation-high +58 rating.
Giguere, who tallied twice in overtime in Clarkson's run last year to the national title, ended another postseason game in dramatic fashion, with the winning score at 11:45 of the extra session in Saturday's win. She also set up the Knights' three other goals in the victory.
• Centering the top line in college hockey, Pejzlova has 52 points on 19 goals and 33 assists, and has accumulated 139 career points (56-83) in 114 games. She is tied for the team lead in power-play goals with four and has scored four game-winners, and owns the second best plus/minus in the nation (+50).
• Graduate transfer T.T. Cianfarano has been a nice addition to the Clarkson lineup,  recording 34 points on 18 goals and 16 assists. 
• Defensemen, junior Ella Shelton (5-18) and senior Emma Keenan (3-17) round out Clarkson's 20-point scorers with 23 and 20 points, respectively.
• An All-American at Ohio State, graduate transfer Kassidy Sauve has been stellar in recent games. Starting 32 games, she posts a .933 save percentage, a 1.75 GAA and is second in the country in wins with a 24-6-2 record, including six shutouts. Sauve was named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week for the fifth time, the most by any league player, and was honored as the conference Goaltender of the Month for both December and February.
• Clarkson has outscored the opponents 58-21 in the second period.
• Clarkson has scored 35 goals in the first or last two minutes of periods this season. The quickest goal to start a game by a Knight this season was from Loren Gabel just eight seconds into the 5-1 win over Yale (1/18). 
1% (13-62).
• The Knights are 0-1-1 in neutral site games, tying (3-3) and losing (3-1) to Northeastern in Belfast, Northern Ireland on January 5-6. Clarkson is 17-1-1 at home this season, with the lone loss at Cheel, a 4-3 overtime setback to Colgate on February 9. The green and Gold are 10-5 in road games. 

 
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