Women's Hockey - at Clarkson & St. Lawrence (5/6 Feb)

In the effort to hold on to the eighth playoff spot, points are obviously important, and RPI managed to steal one on Saturday in a 1-1 tie against St. Lawrence. Lovisa Selander made 48 saves in the game.

It was a better result than Friday night, which saw the Engineers give up three goals each period to Clarkson en route to a 9-1 loss.

Clarkson

Horwood/Gruschow/Tomlinson
Rooney/Mankey/Wash
Grigsby/Hylwa/Thomas
Raspa/Orzechowski/Tremblay

Hansen/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Kimmerle/Renn

Selander/Bombay/Till

Alexa Gruschow scored for RPI in the first period, but the Engineers couldn't hold Clarkson from scoring at will in a 9-1 loss Friday night in Potsdam. Lauren Lefler notched two goals and a assist while Genevieve Bannon and Renata Fast both went 1-2-3 for the Golden Knights.

Fast and Bannon got the Golden Knights off to a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Cassidy Vinkle found Fast with a blind backhand pass for the first tally, then Bannon beat Selander five-hole less than two minutes later to make it 2-0.

Gruschow's goal came at 7:21 when Shayna Tomlinson made a slick backhand pass of her own to hit Gruschow on the doorstep to beat Shea Tiley and cut RPI's deficit to one.

The Clarkson lead was back to two by 8:47 of the first when Lefler scored her first of the night. That marked the end of the night for Selander, who was pulled in favor of Kira Bombay after surrendering three goals on four shots to start the game.

Clarkson went on to score three more goals in each of the second and third periods, starting off with a power play goal in each. Loren Gabel and Jessica Gillham scored 23 seconds apart early in the second to make a 3-1 lead into a 5-1 lead, and Shannon MacAulay tacked on one more later in the middle frame with a smooth backhander from just outside the blue paint to beat Bombay.

Erin Ambrose picked up another power play goal at 8:14 of the third, firing a rocket through traffic from the point. Lefler's second of the game came at 15:25 as she found a loose puck behind Bombay in the crease and poked it home, and Kelly Mariani closed out the scoring just 39 seconds later to give the game its final 9-1 score. Sara Till came into the game after the ninth goal, playing the final 3:56 and stopping the one save she faced.

The loss was RPI's most lopsided since being shutout 10-0 at Clarkson on November 5, 2011.

St. Lawrence

Horwood/Gruschow/Tomlinson
Rooney/Mankey/Wash
Grigsby/Hylwa/Thomas
Raspa/Orzechowski/Tremblay

Hansen/Godin
Behounek/Banks
Kimmerle/Renn

Selander

After being relieved of her duties early Friday night, Lovisa Selander bounced back with a spectacular effort on Saturday, making 48 saves to help RPI hold on for a 1-1 tie against St. Lawrence in Canton. It was a long time to hold on, too, as Laura Horwood's tally for the Engineers came just 26 seconds into the game.

Horwood's goal came on the game's opening shift as she crashed the net and received a feed from Shayna Tomlinson behind the net. The junior was able to capitalize on SLU's Grace Harrison losing track of the puck to put it in the back of the net before the netminder could figure out where it had gone.

RPI killed two consecutive penalties early in the second to maintain the lead, but after the teams traded additional penalties, the Engineers found themselves in a 4-on-3 shorthanded situation where the Saints were able to capitalize. Hannah Miller earned that goal with a blast from the faceoff dot which threaded through traffic and past Selander to tie the game at one.

The Engineers and Saints traded penalties in the third, and as the clock wound down on regulation, RPI went on the power play with just 11 seconds left on the clock. That power play would carry over into overtime, but the Engineers couldn't score on their three overtime shots.

Of Selander's 48 saves, 23 came in the second period alone, with 14 more in the third.

With the one-point weekend, the Engineers remain in eighth place, three points behind sixth-place SLU, two points behind seventh-place Yale, three points ahead of Cornell and four in front of Dartmouth with four games to play.

RPI's final home games of the season come next weekend against Harvard (7pm Friday) and Dartmouth (4pm Saturday). An RPI win over Dartmouth next weekend would ensure the Big Green could not overtake the Engineers in the standings, at worst leaving it to tiebreakers to decide a potential tie. But more importantly the Engineers likely need to take two points next weekend to keep ahead of Cornell, which has winnable games against Brown, Yale, and Dartmouth left on the schedule, while RPI closes with a tough road trip to Princeton and Quinnipiac.

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RPI at Clarkson
ECAC Hockey Game - Cheel Arena (Potsdam, NY)
2/5/16 - 7pm
Clarkson 9, RPI 1

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5214
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wclkren1.f05

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2016/2/5/WICE_0205164405.aspx
Clarkson: http://clarksonathletics.com/news/2016/2/5/WHOCK_0205162633.aspx
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOE0OtmE-A

RECORD: 9-14-4 (7-8-2 ECAC)

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RPI vs. St. Lawrence
ECAC Hockey Game - Appleton Arena (Canton, NY)
2/6/16 - 4pm
RPI 1, SLU 1 (OT)

BOX SCORES:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=whock&id=5205
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1516/boxes/wrenstl1.f06

RECAPS:
RPI: http://www.rpiathletics.com/news/2016/2/6/WICE_0206160518.aspx
St. Lawrence: http://www.saintsathletics.com/news/2016/2/6/WHOCKEY_0206161426.aspx
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qib5xohFNg

RECORD: 9-14-5 (7-8-3 ECAC)

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ECAC Standings (all teams have 18GP)

1. Quinnipiac - 29 pts (13-2-3)
2. Clarkson - 26 pts (11-3-4)
3. Princeton - 25 pts (12-5-1)
4. Colgate - 23 pts (9-4-5)
5. Harvard - 22 pts (10-6-2)
6. St. Lawrence - 20 pts (8-6-4)
7. Yale - 19 pts (9-8-1)
8. RPI - 17 pts (7-8-3)
9. Cornell - 14 pts (5-9-4)
10. Dartmouth - 13 pts (5-10-3)
11. Brown - 5 pts (1-14-3)
12. Union - 3 pts (0-15-3)

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Upcoming Schedule

Feb. 12 - Harvard (7pm)
Feb. 13 - Dartmouth (Senior Day) (4pm)
Feb. 19 - at Princeton (7pm)
Feb. 20 - at Quinnipiac (4pm)