ITHACA, N.Y. – Fresh off a sweep of St. Lawrence in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, ninth-ranked women's hockey will head to the familiar confines of Cheel Arena for a rematch with fifth-ranked Clarkson in the Semifinals. The winner will move on to Sunday's Championship Game with the winner gaining the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Semifinal Game One:#9/9 Cornell (18-10-3) at #5/5 Clarkson (24-9-3)Saturday, March 7, 2015 | 1:05 P.M. | Potsdam, N.Y. – Cheel ArenaLive Stats |
Live Video Stream (ESPN3) Semifinal Game Two:#6/6 Quinnipiac (26-7-3) vs. #4/4 Harvard (23-5-3)Saturday, March 7, 2015 | 4:05 P.M. | Potsdam, N.Y. – Cheel ArenaLive Stats |
Live Video Stream (ESPN3) Championship Game:Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 WinnerSunday, March 8, 2015 | 2:05 P.M. | Potsdam, N.Y. – Cheel ArenaLive Stats |
Live Video Streak (ESPN3) Game NotesCornell(PDF)Big Red Headlines
Cornell has been buoyed by strong team defense and goaltending down the stretch this season. The Big Red enter the weekend winners of four straight and has posted a 12-4-2 record since the calendar changed over to 2015. Although the squad entered the year with high expectations thanks to the return of an excellent senior class, Cornell got off to a slow start due to a few absences from the lineup and a relatively inexperienced blue-line. Once the lineup stabilized following the Thanksgiving Break, Cornell took off, closing out 2014 with three straight victories, including a record setting 8-3 victory at Clarkson on December 5. The team kept the momentum going into the New Year, riding a 10-game unbeaten streak into the home stretch. After hitting a bump in the road in mid-February, the Big Red have the ship righted heading into the biggest weekend of the season. The squad currently boasts the top three scorers in ECAC Hockey in the senior trio of
Brianne Jenner,
Emily Fulton,
Jillian Saulnier. Sophomore goaltender
Paula Voorheis is also riding her best stretch of the season.
How Cornell Got Here...The Big Red head to the conference semifinals coming off a sweep of the fifth seed St. Lawrence in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal best-of-three series last weekend. The dangerous Saints have been a difficult team to play against all season, putting up positive results against top-ranked teams with regularity. Cornell dispatched St. Lawrence with a combination of timely offense and extremely stalwart goaltending from Voorheis. Junior winger
Jess Brown tallied a goal midway through the third period and sophomore goaltender
Paula Voorheis made it stand up, stopping 18-of-19 shots in a 3-1 victory in Game One. The team staked a furious third period comeback, tallying three-times in the final period, to best St. Lawrence 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in the second game of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series. Saulnier and Fulton combined on an excellent play to net the game-winner with 3:18 remaining to give the home side the first lead in the game. Now the squad will look towards a matchup against the defending National Champions in an effort to advance to the team's sixth straight conference tournament title game.
Golden Knight HeadlinesThe defending National Champion Golden Knights have gotten off to another strong start in 2014-15. The squad enters the weekend with a 24-9-3 mark overall, battling back in the final weekend of the regular season to take first place and the number overall seed in the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The team is currently ranked fifth in both major national polls. Clarkson is 9-1-0 over its last 10 games with the only loss coming in a 1-0 shutout at the hands of Quinnipiac. The Golden Knights rebounded from its historic loss to Cornell in early December by going on quite a run down the stretch. The Knights went 13-3-2 since the 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Big Red. Junior Cayley Mercer has powered the Clarkson offense down the stretch, finishing the regular season third in points, while she tied Cornell winger
Emily Fulton for the conference lead in goal scoring. She currently has a 23-19-42 line on the season. Shannon MacAulay, Genevieve Bannon and Olivia Howe continue to give her solid support, all tallying 30+ points this season. The Golden Knights are also anchored at the backend by outstanding freshman netminder Shea Tiley. She has been amazing down the stretch, allowing just six goals over her last 10 starts, which includes four shutouts.
How Clarkson Got Here...In the first game of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey quarterfinals, the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team took a 1-0 series lead after defeating Dartmouth 6-0 in Cheel Arena on Friday night. A week after it took Clarkson more than 54 minutes to score their first goal against Dartmouth, the Golden Knights took only 5:52 to get one on the board this time. The Golden Knights would tack on three goals in the second period to blow the game open. Three third-period goals helped ensure that the fifth-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey team will host the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament for the second consecutive year, as the Green and Gold defeated Dartmouth 4-1 to sweep the best-of-three quarterfinal series. After a scoreless first period, Clarkson would get on the board at the 16:21 minute of the second period; just two seconds after a Dartmouth player had come out of the penalty box. Clarkson would blow the game open in the third period with three goals. The Golden Knights will now look to advance to the tournament final.
Crimson HeadlinesHarvard started off the season slow, entering December with a 4-2-2 record. The Crimson went on quite a run since then rattling off winning streaks of nine and seven games to grab a stranglehold on a first place finish during the regular season heading into the final weekend. During the seven game stretch the Crimson also dealt previously undefeated and No. 1 ranked Boston College its first loss of the season to take the Beanpot. Although flying incredibly high, Harvard let the title slip away in the final weekend with a tie against St. Lawrence and a loss against Clarkson to fall into a share of the regular season title and the second seed in the conference tournament. The Harvard offense is buoyed by the junior duo of Mary Parker and Miye D'Oench who both broke the 30 points threshold this season. Senior Samantha Reber and underclassmen Sydney Daniels and Lexie Laing provide considerable scoring depth for the Crimson. Harvard is helped on the back end by senior blue-liner Sarah Edney who was named ECAC Hockey Defender of the Year. The Crimson is also loaded in the crease with ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year finalist Emerance Maschemeyer. She has been rock solid down the stretch, finishing with a 1.45 GAA and .941 save percentage.
How Harvard Got Here...Harvard rebounded nicely from the disappointment of the regular season's final weekend to sweep a Yale squad that had been red-hot entering the tournament. The Crimson outshot the Bulldogs, 41-23 in Game One, and even though Yale's Jaimie Leonoff was sturdy in goal – collecting 39 saves – both Miye D'Oench and Sydney Daniels were each able to solve her to propel Harvard to the 2-1 victory. The pair scored roughly seven minutes apart to power the comeback after Yale tallied the game's first goal. The second game proved to be not nearly as difficult, as Harvard stymied the Bulldogs in a 3-0 shutout to punch its ticket to the semifinals. Junior goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer shone bright versus the Bulldogs in the second game of the series, earning her 12th career shutout with a 24-save effort between the pipes. She and the Crimson penalty kill unit stopped all three Yale power plays en route to a clean sheet. Sydney Daniels, Samantha Reber and Josephine Pucci scored the goals for the Crimson. Harvard now turns its sights to Quinnipiac in its semifinal matchup.
Bobcat HeadlinesQuinnipiac has enjoyed a fantastic year, surprising the preseason pundits by leading the conference for the majority of the regular season until some late stumbles down the stretch pushed the team into a third place finish. The squad's phenomenal defense has been leaned upon heavily throughout the season, as it enters the weekend as the stingiest team in NCAA Division I, allowing just 1.06 goals per game. While it had been smooth sailing for the Bobcats through the majority of the season, the team has battled through a rough stretch in recent games. The squad has finished the regular season with 4-6 mark over its final 10 games. While the Bobcats are a juggernaut on the defensive end, the team has found it difficult to score goals over stretches this season. The star that has shown the brighest in the offensive end is freshman Taylar Cianfarano. She led all conference rookies with 17 goals and 30 points in her debut season. The team boasts five other players that scored 20+ points on the year. However, it is the defense that highlights this group. Senior netminder Chelsea Laden finished second among all NCAA Division I goaltenders with a 1.09 goals against average on the year. She led the nation with 16 shutouts.
How Quinnipiac Got Here...Although the Bobcats limped into the conference tournament with a difficult run down the stretch, the team made quite the emphatic statement in its sweep of a dangerous Princeton team in the Quarterfinals. Quinnpiac shutout the Princeton in both games, while the squad filled the net nine times in the two games. Goaltender Chelsea Laden picked up her 15th shutout of the season to set the new ECAC Women's Hockey record for shutouts in a single-season in the 7-0 rout of Princeton in Game One. Quinnipiac also recorded 44 shots, as the Bobcats hit the 40-shot total for the second consecutive game and ninth time this season. Quinnipiac outshot Princeton 44-13, including 17-2 in the second period. The Bobcats didn't have quite as easy a time of things the following afternoon, holding off Princeton in a 2-0 final. Nicole Connery scored the game-winning power play goal in the second period. Chelsea Laden recorded her third consecutive shutout and 16th shutout of the season with a 16 save effort in the 2-0 victory.
The Series With Clarkson...Cornell leads the all-time series against Clarkson 22-12-3, which includes the Big Red's 1-0 victory over the Golden Knights in last season's ECAC Hockey Tournament Final. The two programs first met in 1974-75, with Cornell taking the first matchup 6-0. The Big Red would go on to win the first 11 games in the series, before the teams ended the annual matchups at the conclusion of 1981-82 season. The teams resumed the series in 2003-04, with Cornell posting an 11-12-3 record against Clarkson. The Big Red is 8-7-2 against the Golden Knights all-time at Cheel Arena, including victories in the last two matchups. Cornell has outscored the Golden Knights 9-4 in the two contests contests. Junior
Jess Brown recorded her first career hat trick, while
Brianne Jenner and
Jillian Saulnier each tallied shorthanded goals as part of four point nights in Cornell's 8-3 victory over the Golden Knights earlier this season.
First Matchup With Clarkson This Season...Cornell women's hockey tallied two shorthanded goals in the span of 1:12 and continued to roll in an 8-3 rout of defending National Champion No. 6 on Dec. 5 at Cheel Arena. The Cornell special teams came to play in a scintillating opening period for the visiting Big Red. Cornell also added a power-play goal, to jump out to a commanding 4-1 lead at the intermission. Both Jenner (2g –2a) and Saulnier (1g–3a) would finish with four point nights. Junior
Jess Brown turned the commanding lead into a rout scoring the only two goals of the period. She would finish with a hat trick and career-high four points. The eight goal output was the Big Red's highest since an 8-1 victory over Union at Lynah Rink on Nov. 13, 2013. Surprisingly, it came against one of the nation's stingiest defenses. The Golden Knights ranked sixth entering the weekend, averaging just 1.53 goals allowed per game. The Golden Knights have not allowed eight goals in a game since becoming a Division I program in 2003-04. It was the most goals scored in the matchup since a 13-2 Cornell victory in 1980.
Second Matchup With Clarkson This Season...Sophomore goalie
Paula Voorheis stopped 40 shots and
Cassandra Poudrier's third period goal gave the Cornell a 1-1 overtime tie with defending NCAA champion Clarkson on January 10 at Lynah Rink. Although Cornell was hoping to secure the season sweep over Clarkson, the Golden Knights had other ideas, firing 30 pucks on net through the opening 40 minutes of play. Cornell jumped out to the 1-0 lead at the 14:09 mark of the third period. Although the Big Red failed to capitalize with 1:33 of powerplay time just a few minutes earlier, the team used the advantage to generate some momentum after being trapped in its own zone for sizeable stretches of the opening 40 minutes. Poudrier started the play working the puck into the neutral zone to
Jess Brown. The junior – who tallied a hat trick in this season's previous matchup against the Golden Knights – made a fantastic spin-o-rama move to wheel past the Clarkson defender. She charged hard to the near post, before backhanding a feed to
Caroline DeBruin who was making a hard center drive through the slot. The sophomore fired a shot through a screen that was kicked out by Clarkson goaltender Shea Tiley (T, 13-6-2). The puck drifted back out to the slot to the stick of Poudrier, who wristed it back through the crowd of humanity in front of the net, tickling the twine to the stick side of Tiley for her first goal of the season. Erin Ambrose was able to finally get a puck past Voorheis with 7:23 remaining in the game, as Clarkson worked with the powerplay advantage.
Comfortable at CheelWhen Clarkson becames a Division I program, Cornell has struggled to find consistent success in the historic barn of the Golden Knights. That has not been the case lately, as the Big Red has won the last two matchups between the two programs at Cheel. Cornell dispatched Clarkson 1-0 in the Tournament Final last season and an 8-3 decision during the regular season in December.
QuarterMasters Cornell has been invincible in quarterfinal series of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The Big Red has hosted a first round series at Lynah Rink each of the last six seasons and has compiled a perfect 12-0 record in those games. The stretch has witnessed some interesting series, including a first round matchup against Colgate in 2013 in which the Big Red advanced in two games despite leading for a combined one-second of play. Cornell bested Colgate 5-4 in overtime during the first game, while it broke a 2-2 tie with one-second remaining in the second game. Most recently, the Big Red downed Princeton in two games a season ago. In game one, Cornell stormed back from a 2-0 deficit, tallying three times in the third period to steal a victory. The second game was also a nailbiter, as
Jillian Saulnier netted an empty-netter with 56 seconds left to secure the 5-3 victory. The Big Red has outscored its opponents by a 42-17 margin in the 10 contests. Cornell has not met the Saints in a quarterfinal series, since ECAC Hockey moved to its current tournament format in 2004. The squad continued its run with the sweep over St. Lawrence.
Tournament TestedOver the last six years, no team has found more success in the ECAC Hockey Tournament than Cornell. The Big Red has won four of the last five conference tournaments and will look to make it five-of-six when play begins this weekend. The program won tournament titles in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014. Over the last five years, Cornell has posted a 21-1 record in the tournament, outscoring its opponents 83-41 in those contests. Coincidentally, the lone loss in that stretch came against the team the Big Red just bested in St. Lawrence. The most recent of the two matchups prior to this season came in the semi-finals of the 2013 ECAC Hockey Tournmanet, with Cornell scoring a 4-2 victory over the Saints at Lynah Rink.
Taylor Woods netted a four-points in the contest, including her only career hat-trick. The Big Red scored twice in the final 1:38 of the game to seal the victory. The loss came in the final's of the previous season. Chelsea Karpenko equalized the game with just over eight minutes to play, but this time it was St. Lawrence that tallied twice in the final two-minutes to take the tournament title.
Another Level in the TournamentThe Cornell top-line has been otherworldly in its ability to produce in the ECAC Hockey Tournament.
Brianne Jenner leads all current Cornell players with 27 points (8g-19a) during tournament games. Her best performance came in a five-point game, which included a hat-trick and the game-winning goal in the 5-4 overtime win over Colgate two seasons ago.
Jillian Saulnier also boasts impressive numbers with 19 points (9g-10a) in tournament games.
Emily Fulton has been a steady contributor with eight points (3g-5a) in tournament play. Outside of the top-line,
Taylor Woods also seems to have a penchant to produce when the games matter most. She has marked a point in five of her 10 tournament games, posting nine points (5g-4a) in her career.
Monthly AwardsA Cornell player wrapped up ECAC Hockey Player of the Month for the third consecutive time when
Jillian Saulnier was named the conference's top player for February by the league's sports information directors. She tied for the conference lead with her linemates with 14 points in the month, while she led the conference with nine goals. Jenner won the previous two such awards.
Weekly AwardsSaulnier double-dipped this week, also earning the Player of the Week honor as well. She had a clutch weekend in helping Cornell to the series sweep. The senior tallied an empty-net goal to seal Game One, while she helped complete the comeback on Saturday with a goal and assist.
Up NextThe Big Red will hope to gain an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with two wins this weekend. The NCAA at-large selection show will air on Sunday, March 8.
