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Clarkson University Athletics

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Women's Hockey

Knights Open Defense of ECAC Hockey Postseason Title

Champions of the past two ECAC Hockey Tournaments, Clarkson University begins its bid to claim the program's third consecutive conference postseason title when it opens action in the league playoffs to start the month of March.

Hosting an ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series for the eighth straight season, the Golden Knights will battle Quinnipiac in a best-of-three game series at Cheel Arena this weekend. Game 1 of the best-of-three series will take place on Friday at 3:00 p.m., followed by Game 2 on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. If the series is tied after Saturday, the Knights and Bobcats will face off again on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in a deciding Game 3. If the Green and Gold defeat Quinnipiac, they will advance to the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament for the seventh consecutive year.

Guided by 11th-year Head Coach Matt Desrosiers and assistants Britni Smith and Tony Maci, Clarkson finished the 2018-19 ECAC Hockey slate tied for second in the 12-team conference with a 16-5-1 league record and earned the number 3 seed in the eight-team playoffs. Ranked 5th in the national polls, Clarkson stands at 25-7-2 overall.

Other ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals Series
#8 Rensselaer at #1 Cornell, #7 Harvard at #2 Colgate, #5 St. Lawrence vs #4 Princeton

Clarkson vs Quinnipiac - ECAC Quarterfinal Series release  
ECAC Hockey Standings
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 


• Clarkson, which has qualified for the ECAC Hockey playoffs in every year it has been eligible, is 26-20 through 14 seasons of league postseason play. The Knights are 19-14 in the quarterfinal round having won eight of their 14 series, including the past six. 
• Clarkson and Quinnipiac have met in the ECAC Playoffs on three occasions, with the Bobcats winning  a quarterfinals series (2-1) in 2011-12, the Knights winning in the ECAC semifinals in 2014 (6-0) and Quinnipiac winning in the 2016 ECAC title game (1-0). Since the defeat to the Bobcats in the 2016 ECAC Championship, the Golden Knights have not lost an ECAC tournament contest (8-0).
• The Knights took three of four points from Quinnipiac during the regular season, winning 3-2 in Hamden, CT on February 1 and tying the Bobcats 1-1 this past Saturday in the regular season final. Clarkson leads the all-time series 23-11-5, including an
11-7-3 edge at Cheel Arena
• The Knights closed out the regular season playing in four overtime games in their final five contests, going 1-2-1 in the extra sessions. For the season, Clarkson went 2-3-2 in overtime games. 
• The Knights are 15-1-1 at home this season, with the lone loss at Cheel, a 4-3 overtime setback to Colgate on February 9.
• Clarkson is 19-1-2 when scoring first and 23-1-1 when leading through 40 minutes. 
• Clarkson owns the second most potent offense in Division I, averaging 3.76 goals.
• Defensively the Green and Gold are tied for fourth in Division I, allowing only 1.85 goals.
• The Knights' scoring margin is third in the country at 1.91.
• Clarkson has outscored the opponents 57-19 in the second period.
• Headlining the Green and Gold attack are three of the top five 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 34 and and is second in points (63). Sophomore linemate, right wing Elizabeth Giguere tops Division I in points with 63 and is the nation's leading player maker with 40 assists. Junior center Michaela Pejzlova is fifth in the NCAA in points with 50 and is Division I's fourth leading playmaker with 31 assists.
• Making up arguably the top line ever in women's college hockey, the Clarkson trio has combined for 76 goals and 98 assists for 174 points. That is more goals than 17 other Division I teams, including seven ECAC Hockey squads, more assists than five teams (four in ECAC) and more points than 10 other teams (five in ECAC).
• Averaging almost two points per game, Gabel has tallied 61 points (34-27) through 32 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).  Through 154 career games, Gabel has amassed 205 points on 110 goals and 95 assists as the Green and Gold's all-time leading scorer. 
• Giguere has recorded 23 goals and 40 assists through 34 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 75 games, she has tallied 134 points on 50 goals and 84 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, three game-winners and posts a nation-high +54 rating.
• Centering the top line in college hockey, Pejzlova has 50 points on 19 goals and 31 assists, and has accumulated 137 career points (56-81) in 112 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 (+46).
• Graduate transfer T.T. Cianfarano has been a nice addition to the Clarkson lineup,  recording 33 points on 18 goals and 15 assists. 
• Junior defenseman Ella Shelton rounds out Clarkson's 20-point scorers with 23 points on five goals and 18 assists. 
• An All-American at Ohio State, graduate transfer Kassidy Sauve has been stellar in recent games and has been a key reason for the Knights' success. Through 30 starts, she posts a .932 save percentage, a 1.78 GAA and is second in the country in wins with a 22-6-2 record, including five shutouts.
• Clarkson has scored 32 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). 


Series Quinnipiac After skating to a 1-1 draw this past weekend to close out the regular season, Clarkson now holds a 23-11-5 record against the Bobcats. The Golden Knights hold an 11-7-3 edge at Cheel Arena. Clarkson and Quinnipiac have met in the ECAC Playoffs on three occasions, with the Bobcats winning  a quarterfinals series (2-1) in 2012, the Knights winning in the ECAC semifinals in 2014 and Quinnipiac winning in the 2016 ECAC title game, only to see the Knights beat the Bobcats in the NCAA Tournament a week later. That last playoff matchup between the two teams saw Renata Fast score in the first 10 seconds of the game, the only goal in a 1-0 Clarkson victory in Hamden, CT.  This will mark the second time the schools have met in the ECAC Quarterfinals. During the 2011-12 season the Bobcats came to Cheel Arena and skated to a 2-1 series win, taking the first game 4-1 and the final game 2-0. Clarkson's senior class played in two playoff games against Quinnipiac in 2015-16, losing 1-0 in the ECAC Championship and winning 1-0 in the NCAA Quarterfinals six days later. Since the 1-0 loss to the Bobcats in the 2016 ECAC Championship, the Golden Knights have not lost an ECAC tournament contest. 
Top-10 Patty Kazmaier finalists Loren Gabel and Elizabeth Giguere did all of the scoring damage against the Bobcats in 2018-19. In the first matchup, Gabel registered a hat trick in a 3-2 win on the road, with Giguere assisting on all three goals. Giguere scored the lone goal for the Green and Gold in a 1-1 tie this past Saturday at Cheel Arena. Kassidy Sauve played stellar in both matchups this season, steering away 57 of 60 shots in the two games for a .950 save percentage and a 1.44 goals against average.

Scouting Quinnipiac: Quinnipiac rode into the North Country on a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) and left with a six-game unbeaten streak (3-0-3) after tying St. Lawrence 2-2 on Friday and Clarkson 1-1 on Saturday to close out the regular season. The Bobcats finished the regular season 12-16-6 overall and 9-9-4 in the ECAC, good enough for a sixth-place tie with Harvard. By virtue of two 1-0 wins over the Crimson, Quinnipiac earned the sixth seed in the ECAC Tournament and a return trip to Cheel Arena for the quarterfinal series. The last time the Bobcats made it past the quarterfinal round was the 2015-16 season when they beat RPI on back-to-back nights. Then Bobcat turned Golden Knight T.T. Cianfarano had a goal and three assists during Quinnipiac's ECAC Championship run, including an assist on the overtime game-winner to send them to the semifinals. This will be the second consecutive year Quinnipiac will travel to the North Country for the quarterfinals. Last year, St. Lawrence swept the Bobcats in consecutive games, 3-1 and 2-1, at Appleton Arena. 
 
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Players Mentioned

Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

F
5' 4"
Senior
Elizabeth Giguere

#7 Elizabeth Giguere

F
5' 10"
Sophomore
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

F
5' 6"
Junior
Ella Shelton

#11 Ella Shelton

D
5' 8"
Junior
T.T. Cianfarano

#27 T.T. Cianfarano

F
5' 6"
Graduate Student

Players Mentioned

Loren Gabel

#19 Loren Gabel

5' 4"
Senior
F
Elizabeth Giguere

#7 Elizabeth Giguere

5' 10"
Sophomore
F
Michaela Pejzlova

#10 Michaela Pejzlova

5' 6"
Junior
F
Ella Shelton

#11 Ella Shelton

5' 8"
Junior
D
T.T. Cianfarano

#27 T.T. Cianfarano

5' 6"
Graduate Student
F