Monday, January 13, 2014

Women's Hockey - Quinnipiac & Princeton (10/11 Jan)

With non-conference action finished for the year, RPI returned to ECAC play and may have found what they needed to spark some improvement on the season.

After being swept at Princeton and Quinnipiac before the holiday break, the Engineers turned the tables against the same teams at home and defeated Quinnipiac 3-2 on Friday night, before earning a come-from-behind 4-4 tie against Princeton on Saturday.

Quinnipiac

Mahoney/Gruschow/Rooney
Wash/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Horwood/Sanders/Walsh
Letuligasenoa/Hylwa

Huhtamaki/Godin
Schilter/Marzario
Behounek/Banks
Middlebrook

O'Brien

Despite only putting 16 shots on net against Quinnipiac on Friday night, RPI made three of them count, all in the second period, and held off a furious third period effort by the 10th-ranked Bobcats to capture a 3-2 victory at Houston Field House.

After an uneventful first period which saw a combined six shots, Lauren Wash opened the scoring for the Engineers, and Alexa Gruschow added two more, all in the span of just over five minutes in the second period.

Wash's goal came after a flurry of shots by the Engineers, with one of a series of rebound chances finally finding its way past goalie Chelsea Laden for the 1-0 lead.

Gruschow's first of the game came about two and a half minutes later, entering the zone 1-on-2 and somehow putting a weak wrister past Laden to make it 2-0.

Another harmless looking shot by Gruschow became the Engineers' third goal about a minute and a half following her first, and that would mark the end of Laden's night as she would be relieved by freshman Sydney Rossman.

After the goaltending change, and more particularly from the start of the third period, Quinnipiac found a spark and launched a strong comeback bid which would ultimately fall short.

Shiann Darkangelo scored a 4-on-4 goal less than a minute into the third period to get Quinnipiac on the board and cut the RPI lead to 3-1, then scored again late in the period on the power play to make it 3-2.

After Quinnipiac drew to within one, the Engineers clamped down and managed to kill much of the remaining time in the Bobcats' zone, holding on for the 3-2 victory.

Princeton

Mahoney/Gruschow/Rooney
Wash/Mari Mankey/Svoboda
Horwood/Sanders/Walsh
Letuligasenoa/Hylwa/Middlebrook

Huhtamaki/Godin
Schilter/Banks
Behounek/Marzario

O'Brien/Piper

RPI recovered from two different two-goal deficits to tie the game 3-3, and goals traded by RPI and Princeton over two minutes of the third period quickly took that 3-3 tie to 4-4 which became the final in a game which saw the Engineers outshoot the Tigers by a lopsided 32-15 margin, but had Kelly O'Brien pulled after surendering four goals on ten shots.

Princeton jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the early part of the first period, with Denna Laing scoring at the 25 second mark and again at 5:37.

Mari Mankey cut the Tigers' lead in half just before the midpoint of the first, notching a power play goal with assists from Gruschow and Schilter to make it 2-1.

Princeton regained the two-goal lead a few minutes into the second period on a Cassidy Tucker goal, but RPI once again cut it to one with another power play goal, this one by Toni Sanders.

A wild stretch of just over two minutes in the third period saw the Engineers tie the game on a goal by Wash but then Princeton regained the lead by a 4-3 margin when Laing completed the hat trick on a shorthanded tally. O'Brien was pulled in favor of Brianna Piper after Princeton's fourth goal.

Heidi Huhtamaki earned redemption for the Engineers' power play, scoring on the remaining man advantage after Laing's shorthanded marker to even things at 4-4.

The Engineers succeeded in killing two penalties, one late in the third period and another in overtime, but would not succeed in earning a go-ahead goal. They instead settled for a tie the night after Union picked up a win over the Tigers and held them to a single goal.

Gruschow finished the weekend with two goals and two assists, Wash had two goals and an assist, and Huhtamaki finished with a goal and two assists.

It's now the time of year where RPI and Union will have their home-and-home series, with the Engineers playing host Friday night (7pm) before the teams meet again in Schenectady on Saturday afternoon (4pm).

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RPI vs. Quinnipiac
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/10/14 - 7:00pm
RPI 3, QU 2

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 8-11-1 (4-5 ECAC)

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RPI vs. Princeton
ECAC Hockey Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
1/11/14 - 4:00pm
RPI 4, Princeton 4 (OT)

BOX SCORES:

RECAPS:

RECORD: 8-11-2 (4-5-1 ECAC)

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Upcoming Games

Jan. 17 - Union (7pm)
Jan. 18 - at Union (4pm)
Jan. 24 - at Dartmouth (7pm)
Jan. 25 - at Harvard (4pm)

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ECAC Standings

1t. Cornell - 18 points (8-0-2) (.900)
1t. Quinnipiac - 18 points (7-3-4) (.643)
3. Harvard - 17 points (8-2-1) (.773)
4. Clarkson - 15 points (7-2-1) (.750)
5. Princeton - 14 points (6-6-2) (.500)
6. St. Lawrence - 11 points (5-4-1) (.550)
7t. RPI - 9 points (4-5-1) (.450)
7t. Yale - 9 points (4-5-1) (.450)
9. Dartmouth - 7 points (3-7-1) (.318)
10. Union - 6 points (3-7-0) (.300)
11. Colgate - 4 points (2-8-0) (.200)
12. Brown - 2 points (0-8-2) (.100)

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