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Making its final road trip of the regular season, the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team will look to extend its lead in the race for the ECAC Hockey regular season title when it travels to the southern reaches of the conference to play at Princeton and Quinnipiac Universities this weekend. The Golden Knights play the Tigers at Hobey Baker Rink in New Jersey on Friday night at 7:00 p.m., and then faceoff against the Bobcats at the TD Banknorth Sports Center in Hamden, CT on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Guided by second-year co head coaches Shannon and Matt Desrosiers, the Golden Knights, with 29 points, have a three-point advantage in the ECAC Hockey standings, owning a 14-3-1 conference mark with four games remaining. Cornell trails Clarkson with 26 points, while Harvard and St. Lawtrence have 24 and 23 points, respectively.
The Green and Gold, led by senior captain Britney Selina (Thornhill, ONT) and senior assistant captain Carlee Eusepi (Oakville, ONT) are ranked fourth in the country by both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls with a 20-7-3 overall record.
Clarkson is coming off its eighth shutout of the season, a 3-0 blanking of Union at Cheel Arena on Saturday. The win over the Dutchwomen put a halt to the Knights’ longest league losing skid of the year at two games. Last Friday, Clarkson lost its first game of the season in Potsdam, falling to Rensselaer 3-1. The Knights started last week with a 4-2 loss at St. Lawrence on February 2. Clarkson is 13-1-1 at Cheel Arena during the 2009-10 campaign and 7-6-2 in road games.
Junior Lauren Dahm (Baldwinsville, NY), who missed her first game this season, sitting out the St. Lawrence contest with an illness, backbones one of the nation’s stingiest defensive units. She holds a .939 save percentage, a 1.47 goals against average and is tied for the national lead in shutouts (8). Dahm boasts the best goaltending stats in ECAC Hockey play with a .961 save percentage and a 0.88 GAA through 17 league games. Clarkson ranks as the toughest team to score against in the conference, allowing only 1.06 goals per game, and is sixth nationally in team defense (1.60 GPG).
Senior Dominique Thibault (L’Orignal, ONT) leads the Clarkson’s offense with 33 points, including a team-high 17 goals. Two other Knights are recording 30 points. Clarkson’s all-time leading scorer, Selina has tallied a team-high 21 assists to go along with nine goals. Selina has amassed 142 career points on 49 goals and 93 assists through 138 games. Sophomore standout Juana Baribeau (Amos, QUE) is balanced on the score sheet with 15 goals and 15 assists.
Junior Melissa Waldie (Newmarket, ONT) has 24 points (13-11) and leads the team in power-play markers with seven. Eusepi powers the offense from the blueline with 15 points (5-10) to round out Clarkson’s double figure scorers.
Vote Eusepi into NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge
Currently on a three-game winless drought (0-2-1), Princeton stands at 10-11-4 overall. The Tigers are in seventh place, two points out of fifth, in ECAC Hockey with an 8-6-4 league slate. Princeton is 5-3-2 at home this season.
Guided by former Clarkson head coach Rick Seeley, Quinnipiac takes a 15-8-7 overall record into Friday’s game against St. Lawrence. The Bobcats are tied for fifth in the standings with an 8-4-6 ECAC Hockey mark. Quinnipiac enters the weekend having gone 8-1-1 over its past 10 games.
Clarkson trails Princeton in their all-time series, 4-9-1, but the Knights have recorded all four of the wins over the past five meetings. After losing the first two games in their series against Quinnipiac, the Green and Gold have gone unbeaten against the Bobcats over the past 11 games and are currently working on a 10-game winning streak.
