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Clarkson women's hockey travels to Colgate and Cornell to open 2015

Posted 1/8/15

After nearly a month without a game, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team returned to the ice and defeated McGill 5-0 on Saturday in an exhibition contest. The Golden Knights will now head to …

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Clarkson women's hockey travels to Colgate and Cornell to open 2015

Posted

After nearly a month without a game, the Clarkson University Women's Hockey team returned to the ice and defeated McGill 5-0 on Saturday in an exhibition contest. The Golden Knights will now head to Central New York this weekend to take on Colgate and Cornell in their first ECAC Hockey games of 2015.

Guided by seventh-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and first-year assistant coaches Meghan Duggan and Britni Smith, the Golden Knights finished 2014 with an overall record of 12-6-1 and a 6-2-1 record in ECAC Hockey play, which places them in third in the conference. They come into the weekend ranked eighth in both polls and are hoping to enact some revenge on Cornell, who left Cheel Arena with a win the last two times the two teams have met.

Clarkson faces off against Colgate in a 7:00 p.m. game Friday night at Starr Rink in Hamilton and then battles Cornell in Ithaca on Saturday afternoon in a 4:00 p.m. game at Lynah Rink.

Sophomore Genevieve Bannon (Candiac, QUE) had four points on two goals and two assists in the win over McGill. She already has 27 points this season, including a team-leading 13 assists. Her nine goals, which include the sole short-handed goal for the Knights this season, are just one short of the ten she potted during her freshman campaign. In her last two official games, she picked up three points, with a goal in the loss against Cornell and two assists in the win over Colgate.

In the 5-1 win over Colgate, junior Cayley Mercer (Exeter, ONT) scored her first collegiate hat trick. She now has 11 goals to go along with her 12 assists. Both totals place her in second place on the team and her 11 goals place her 15th nationally. Mercer has tallied at least one point in 10 of the Golden Knights' 12 wins this season. She also had two assists in the win over McGill.

Junior assistant captain Erin Ambrose (Keswick, ONT) has four goals and eight assists for a total of 12 points this season, leaving her just two shy of 100 for her career (24-74). Ambrose will become the ninth member of Clarkson's 100-point club, as well as just the fourth player to earn that distinction in their junior season. She had two assists against Colgate as well as a goal against Cornell.

Freshman goaltender Shea Tiley (Owen Sound, ONT) has played in all 19 games this season, starting 18 of them. She is second in the conference in goals against average, giving up just 1.54 goals per game, and in saves percentage, which stands at .927. Her gaudy stats have led to her being named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week on three different occasions as well ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Month in both months that it has been awarded.

Freshman Savannah Harmon (Downers Grove, IL) is tied with Ambrose for the most points among defenders on the team. She has four goals and eight assists and was named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week for the week of November 4th.

Harmon has not been the only freshman to contribute on the offensive end this season, with classmates Amanda Titus (Stittsville, ONT), Brielle Bellerive (North Vancouver, BC), and Lauren Lefler (Windsor, ONT) all collecting their first collegiate points this season. Titus has five points this season, on three goals and two assists, including one of each in the 3-2 win over Princeton. Bellerive has one goal and seven assists this season, with three of those assists coming in the last three games. Lefler has not yet scored an official goal to go with her two assists this season, but she did score her first goal in a Clarkson uniform along with tallying an assist in the scrimmage against McGill.

Junior captain Shannon MacAulay (Mt. Herbert, PEI) and junior assistant captain Renata Fast (Burlington, ONT) have been two of the most consistent performers for Clarkson this season. MacAulay leads the team in goals and points, with 14 and 26 of each. She has at least a point in 13 of the 19 games Clarkson has played and in 10 of their 12 wins. Fast missed the first nine games of the season because of an injury, but since then she has a point in seven of the 10 games she has played, for total of two goals and six assists. Both players spent part of their break playing with Team Canada's U22 Team at the Nations Cup in FÜSSEN, German, helping lead the team to the gold medal. The tournament, which also included national teams from Germany, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland, was held from January 3rd through 6th. Clarkson alum Erica Howe '14, the Golden Knights all-time winningest goaltender, was also a part of Team Canada.

Clarkson has struggled in recent years in the games immediately following their return from the semester break. However, in 2014, a 6-0 win over St. Lawrence marked the first time the Knights had won their first game back since 2010.

Since losing to Clarkson in their final game of 2014, Colgate has lost two of three games to open 2015. In a weekend series at Vermont, the Raiders lost two close one-goal games, before returning home, where they blanked Syracuse 2-0. They have scored just nine goals while giving up 27 in their seven conference games and find themselves in a tie for 10th place in the conference. Clarkson has won their last three games in Starr Rink and hold a record of 5-4-2 in the building.

Cornell finished 2014 on a three game winning streak, including handing Clarkson their worst loss of the season. Cornell is in sixth place in the conference, but they have only played seven ECAC Hockey games so far, less than every other team except Colgate. The last time Clarkson left James Lynah Rink with a win was back on February 8th, 2008 when they collected a 5-3 win. Since then, the Knights have lost seven in a row there, getting outscored 24-9.