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After skating to a highly successful 11-1-4 record at Cheel Arena during the 2011-12 campaign, the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team will look to secure a home-ice berth in the upcoming ECAC Hockey playoffs as it closes out the regular season with four straight games on the road. Guided by fourth-year co-head coaches Matt and Shannon Desrosiers and assistant coach Matt Kelly, the Golden Knights play at Princeton in a 7:00 p.m. game at Hobey Baker Rink in New Jersey on Friday, and then battle Quinnipiac on Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. contest at TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, CT.
Led by senior captain Katelyn Ptolemy (Dinsmore, SASK) and assistant captain Danielle Boudreau (Whitby, ONT), Clarkson is unbeaten in its last five games (4-0-1) and owns an 18-7-5 overall record. The Knights, who have qualified for the ECAC playoffs for the eighth consecutive year, enter the four-game road trip in third place in the conference standings with a 12-4-2 league slate. The regular season comes to a close on February 17-18 with Clarkson playing at Cornell and Colgate.
This past weekend in Potsdam, the Green and Gold got by Brown 4-3 in overtime on Friday and then rolled by Yale 7-0 on Saturday to extend their current winning streak to four games. Clarkson is 6-1-1 in conference action during the New Year.
Junior defenseman Hailey Wood’s (Lethbridge, ALB) power-play goal with 66 seconds remaining in overtime lifted the Knights past a stubborn Brown squad. After holding just a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes against Yale on Saturday, the Green and Gold came through with their most productive period of the season by scoring six goals in the third en route to the 7-0 victory over the Bulldogs. Junior Danielle Skirrow (Trenton, ONT) highlighted the balanced offensive effort with two goals and one assist. Sophomore Erica Howe (Ottawa, ONT) was called upon to make just 16 saves in recording her sixth shutout of the season.
Howe, who has played all but 47 minutes through the first 30 games, posts some impressive numbers in the Clarkson crease. She ranks sixth in the nation in goals allowed average (1.78) and holds a .925 save percentage. She is tied for first in the nation in shutouts. Howe backstops Division I’s fifth-ranked penalty-kill 88% (110-125).
Sophomore Carly Mercer (Exeter, ONT) leads the Clarkson offense with 38 points on 14 goals and a team-high 24 assists. Classmate Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, ONT) follows with 33 points, including 16 goals. Skirrow, who shares the Knights’ goal-scoring lead with Rattray, has produced 26 points and is tied for second in the country in power-play goals with 10. Clarkson’s power play is ranked second in Division I, clicking at 26% (34-131).
Princeton opens a four-game home stand on Friday looking to bounce back from a 10-1 loss at Harvard. The Tigers, guided by head coach Jeff Kampersal, own a 10-11-4 overall record and hold down seventh place in the conference standings with an 8-8-2 ECAC Hockey mark. Princeton is 5-4-1 at Hobey Baker Rink.
Guided by former Clarkson head coach Rick Seeley, Quinnipiac has lost three straight heading into Friday’s home game against St. Lawrence. The Bobcats stand at 15-12-2 overall and are in sixth place in the league at 10-6-2. Quinnipiac, which lost at Harvard (4-2) and at Dartmouth (4-1) over the weekend, is 5-5-2 in Hamden, CT.
