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Women's Hockey March 1, 2017

Clarkson Women's Hockey Hosts ECAC Championship Tournament

photo by Jim Meagher

Four of the top eight teams in the country descend on Potsdam this weekend as the third-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team strives to earn its first ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship. The Golden Knights will tussle with eighth-ranked Princeton in the first semifinal at Cheel Arena, while fourth-ranked St. Lawrence takes on seventh-ranked Cornell in the second semifinal matchup.

Clarkson, hosting the league championship weekend for the third time in four years, will meet Princeton at 1:00 pm on Saturday afternoon followed by St. Lawrence against Cornell at 4:00 pm. The two semifinal winners will battle for the ECAC Hockey Championship at 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoon at Cheel.

Led by ninth-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and assistant coaches Britni Smith and Tony Maci, the Green and Gold take a 27-4-5 record into the weekend. Clarkson is on an 11-game unbeaten run (10-0-1), the second longest active streak in the country.
 
Clarkson advanced to the ECAC Hockey Semifinals for the fifth consecutive season after a two-game sweep of Rensselaer in the Quarterfinals. The Golden Knights started the series with a 4-1 win over the Engineers. After Rensselaer canceled out Corie Jacobson's opening  goal, Cassidy Vinkle, co-captain Savannah Harmon, and Loren Gabel all scored goals to hand Clarkson the victory. On Saturday, Clarkson closed out the series with a 5-2 triumph. Gabel and Jacobson scored for the second straight day with Michaela Pejzlova also scoring. It was Genevieve Bannon who scored the game-winning goal, and the assistant captain added a short-handed, empty-net goal to close the game out.

Clarkson is led offensively by co-captain Cayley Mercer and Bannon. Mercer has 55 points this season on 25 goals and 30 assists while Bannon has 45 points on 14 goals and 31 assists. Mercer and Bannon are only the fifth and sixth Clarkson players to reach 30 assists in a single season with Jamie Lee Rattray '14, Erin Ambrose '16, Brittany Styner '14, and Carly Mercer '14 all doing so in the 2013-14 seasons. Mercer is only four goals away from tying Rattray's single-season record of 29 and needs just one more goal to become Clarkson's all-time leader in career goals. Mercer is currently in second place all-time in career points with 171, trailing Rattray by 10 points while Bannon is fifth all-time in career points with 142 and trails Britney Selina '10 by six for fourth place.

Clarkson has three other players with at least 30 points. Gabel is third on the team with 33 points on 16 goals and 17 assists. Gabel had five points in the series against Rensselaer, with a goal and an assist in the game one win and a goal and two assists in the clinching game. Gabel also scored the overtime game-winning goal in the 5-4 win in the regular season finale at Cornell. Pejzlova has 31 points on 11 goals and 20 assists. Pejzlova is the first Clarkson rookie to notch 30 points in a season since Ambrose did it in 2012-13. Pejzlova is third in the country in points per game among freshmen. Harmon has 31 points on nine goals and 22 assists. Harmon is just the second Clarkson defensemen to tally 30 points in a season. Harmon is third in the country in points per game among blue-liners.

Clarkson is 14-3-2 at home this season and is 9-1-1 against conference team in Cheel Arena. The Golden Knights have also been dominant when leading this year. Clarkson is a perfect 12-0-0 when leading at the end of the first period, and 20-1-2 when ahead at the end of the second. The Green and Gold are also 20-1-4 when scoring the first goal of the game.

Princeton needed three games to beat Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, but a 2-1 win meant the Tigers advanced to the semifinals for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Princeton is 20-9-3 on the season and finished 14-6-2 in ECAC Hockey. Karlie Lund leads the Tigers with 44 points on 21 goals and 23 assists. Molly Contini and Kelsey Koelzer both have 31 points in their senior seasons for Princeton while Carly Bullock has 30 points in her rookie campaign. Steph Neatby and Alysia DaSilva have split time in goal this season, but Neatby started all three ECAC Quarterfinal games, including a shutout with Princeton on the brink of elimination in game two. Overall, Neatby has a .953 save percentage and a 1.38 goals against average. Princeton is trying to win its first ECAC Hockey Championship.

Clarkson is 15-12-2 all-time against the Tigers, including a 4-2 road win this season and a 3-1 home victory. Clarkson has not lost in eight meetings with Princeton, going 7-0-1 in that stretch. In the 4-2 win, Clarkson went down 2-0 at the end of the first period, but four straight goals including two from Gabel brought the Golden Knights back. In the home win, Clarkson trailed 1-0 after just 11 seconds, but a Mercer goal and two more goals from Gabel once again helped Clarkson fight back and win. Overall, Mercer has nine points in eight career meetings with Princeton while Gabel has five in four match-ups. The two programs have not met in the postseason since the 2008 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, which saw Clarkson overturn a game one loss and prevail two games to one in the series.

St. Lawrence easily handled Yale in the ECAC Quarterfinals, winning 4-1 and 4-0. St. Lawrence has a 26-4-4 overall record and was 16-3-3 in conference, good enough for the second seed. The Saints are in the ECAC Semifinals for the second straight year and will hope to advance to the final after losing to host Quinnipiac last year. Brooke Webster and Kennedy Marchment lead the Saints with 56 and 55 points respectively. Not far behind the pair is Hannah Miller who has 47 points of her own. Grace Harrison has played the majority of the minutes in goal and has a .930 save percentage and a 1.47 goals against average. St. Lawrence will be trying to win its first ECAC Hockey Championship since 2012.

Clarkson is 21-18-7 all-time against St. Lawrence and the two teams each went 1-1-2 against each other this year. St. Lawrence took a 2-1 non-conference win at home to start the year, before the two teams played to identical 3-3 ties, with the second draw counting towards conference records. Clarkson then earned a 4-1 win at Appleton Arena to earn two conference points. Mercer has 20 career points against the Saints in 16 matchups while Bannon has 16 points of her own in the same number of meetings. Shea Tiley has a career record of 7-2-3 against St. Lawrence. Clarkson and St. Lawrence have met in the ECAC Quarterfinals three times, most recently in the 2010 edition, but have never met in the ECAC Semifinals or Finals.

Cornell took narrow 2-1 and 1-0 wins over Colgate to sweep the Raiders in the ECAC Quarterfinals. The Big Red is back in the ECAC Semifinals after its streak of six straight appearances in the Finals was broken in 2016 by Clarkson. Cornell has a 19-7-5 overall record this season and finished 13-4-5 in conference to earn the third seed. Hanna Bunton and Kristin O'Neill lead the team with 28 and 25 points respectively. Paula Voorheis and Marlene Boissonnault have split time in goal, but it was senior Voorheis that started once the playoffs started. Voorheis has a save percentage of .942 and a goals against average of 1.66. Cornell has won four ECAC Hockey Championships, with the most recent coming in 2014.

Clarkson has an all-time record of 16-13-4 against the Big Red. Cornell earned a 2-1 win in Cheel Arena earlier this season, but Clarkson got revenge with a wild 5-4 overtime road win on the final day of the regular season. Clarkson trailed 3-1 in that game, but came back to lead 4-3 before Cornell tied the game at four in the third period. That set up Gabel who scored the game-winning goal 46 seconds into the extra time period. Harmon had three assists in the win while Mercer scored a pair of goals. Mercer has 12 career points against Cornell and Bannon has nine. Harmon has six of her own while Josiane Pozzebon has six in just six career meetings. The two teams have met in the last three postseasons. Clarkson knocked Cornell out with a two game sweep in last season's ECAC Quarterfinals, avenging losses in the 2015 ECAC Semifinals and 2014 ECAC Championship, with both of those losses coming in Cheel Arena.   


 
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Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

D
5' 5"
Senior
Genevieve Bannon

#9 Genevieve Bannon

F
5' 8"
Senior
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

F
5' 4"
Sophomore
Savannah Harmon

#14 Savannah Harmon

D
5' 3"
Junior
Corie Jacobson

#2 Corie Jacobson

D
5' 6"
Senior
Cayley Mercer

#18 Cayley Mercer

F
5' 8"
Senior
Josiane Pozzebon

#28 Josiane Pozzebon

D
5' 5"
Sophomore
Shea Tiley

#35 Shea Tiley

G
5' 10"
Junior
Cassidy Vinkle

#22 Cassidy Vinkle

F
5' 7"
Sophomore
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

F
5' 7"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Erin Ambrose

#23 Erin Ambrose

5' 5"
Senior
D
Genevieve Bannon

#9 Genevieve Bannon

5' 8"
Senior
F
Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

5' 4"
Sophomore
F
Savannah Harmon

#14 Savannah Harmon

5' 3"
Junior
D
Corie Jacobson

#2 Corie Jacobson

5' 6"
Senior
D
Cayley Mercer

#18 Cayley Mercer

5' 8"
Senior
F
Josiane Pozzebon

#28 Josiane Pozzebon

5' 5"
Sophomore
D
Shea Tiley

#35 Shea Tiley

5' 10"
Junior
G
Cassidy Vinkle

#22 Cassidy Vinkle

5' 7"
Sophomore
F
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

5' 7"
Freshman
F