Colgate Women’s Hockey Looking for Upset up North

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Hamilton, NY — The seventh-seeded Colgate Raiders (15-15-3, 'xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags' />6-11-1 ECAC) head north to Canton, N.Y. this weekend to face number two seed St. Lawrence (24-7-1, 15-3-0 ECAC) in the ECAC Quarterfinals. The Raiders will be looking for an upset in the best two of three series. St. Lawrence finished the regular season as league co-champions with Harvard, but the Crimson claimed the tournament’s top seed by way of a season sweep over the Saints. Colgate has yet to win a playoff game since joining Division 1 two seasons ago. St. Lawrence has not been further than the ECAC semifinals since a national runner-up finish in 2000-01. The Saints are currently ranked fourth in the nation.

St. Lawrence swept two meetings from Colgate this season, 5-2 and 3-1 at Appleton Arena. Colgate briefly held a 1-0 lead in the first meeting, thanks to a power-play goal by junior right wing Kristin Cirbus (Jamestown, N.Y.). The Saints, however, were quick to answer, scoring the game’s next five goals. Christin Powers and Ricki-Lee Doyle each netted a pair of tallies for the hosts. The game was filled with penalties, as Colgate went 2-7 on the power play and St. Lawrence finished 1-8. Rebecca Lahar made 24 saves for Colgate, while St. Lawrence netminder Rachel Barrie finished with 13 stops.

The following afternoon, St. Lawrence was again victorious, this time by a 3-1 score. Chelsea Grills gave the Saints a 1-0 lead at 10:50 of the first period. Colgate battled back to tie the game at 1 on an Ashley Bradford (Burnaby, B.C.) goal just 15 seconds into the second period. Rebecca Russell netted the game winner for St. Lawrence late in the second period, and Christin Powers scored an insurance goal, her third of the weekend, at 12:54 of the third. Rachel Barrie was solid in net for the Saints, holding the Raiders to just a single goal despite a 23-21 shots on goal advantage for the Raiders. Barrie made 22 saves while her Colgate counterpart, Lahar, stopped 18 shots in the contest.

Season Series Totals:

                                      Colgate                   St. Lawrence

Record                              0-2-0                      2-0-0

Goals Scored                     3                            8

Shots on Goal                    38                          50

Saves                              42                          35

Power Plays                       2/12                       1/12

Penalty Minutes                 26                          26

Colgate head coach Scott Wiley moved front-line center Becky Irvine (Lakeview, N.S.) to defense for the Raiders’ two regular season games against St. Lawrence and for last Sunday’s Dartmouth contest. Irvine alternated between forward and defense in her prep school days, and will likely start on the Raiders’ blueline again this weekend.

On the season, Irvine and Allison Paiano (Orleans, Ont.) are tied for the club scoring lead with 15 goals apiece. Irvine‘s 14 assists make her the Raiders’ points leader at 29. Junior goaltender Rebecca Lahar (Vienna, Va.) ranks sixth in the ECAC in both save percentage (.921) and goals against average (2.30).

St. Lawrence’s high scoring attack ‘ the Saints have outscored their opponents 123-61 to date ‘ is led by Gina Kingsbury and Rebecca Russell. Both players netted 21 goals during the campaign, tying them for fifth in the ECAC. Kingsbury, who also posted 28 assists, finished the regular season as the conference’s second highest point producer, behind Harvard’s Nicole Corriero. Chelsea Grills’ 13 goals and 15 assists combine to make her the conference’s highest scoring freshman. St. Lawrence ‘ the ECAC’s second-most penalized team at 13.6 minutes per game ‘ has scored 11 shorthanded goals so far this season, the most in the conference. Senior goaltender Rachel Barrie ranks fifth in the ECAC in save percentage (.927) and third in goals against average (2.01).

Season Stats:

                                      Colgate                            St. Lawrence

Record                             15-15-3, 6-11-1 ECAC        24-7-1, 15-3-0 ECAC

Goals Scored                     81                                    123

Goals Allowed                    78                                    61

Save Percentage                .915                                 .926

Power Play Percentage        14.6%                              17.1%

Penalty Kill Percentage        83.3%                               88.5%

Penalty Minutes                 286                                  434

Colgate enters the game 0-7-1 in its past eight games; however, six of those contests were against teams ranked in the nation’s top ten. St. Lawrence, meanwhile, has won four in a row and thirteen of fifteen.

Game times are Friday night at 7:00, Saturday afternoon at 4:00, and, if necessary, Sunday afternoon at 4:00. The entire series will air live on Sportsjuice.com, with Ted Rossman and Mike Zimmerman calling all the action from Appleton Arena.