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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Clarkson
Sixth-Ranked Women's Hockey Team Heads for Saturday's ECAC Semifinal
March 04, 2020 | Women's Ice Hockey
Following an ECAC quarterfinal series that dipped into three overtime periods across the final two games of a best-of-three that went the distance, the sixth-ranked Princeton women's hockey team will head for another battle against a top-10 team when the Tigers take on Clarkson Saturday at 4 p.m. at Cornell in the ECAC semifinal.
Tournament host Cornell will face Harvard in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. Saturday, and the winners will meet Sunday at 2 p.m. for the final.
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The four remaining teams are the top four seeds in the ECAC, in Cornell, Princeton, Clarkson and Harvard in that order. All are ranked in the latest USA Hockey and USCHO national top-10 rankings, with Cornell No. 1, Princeton No. 6, Clarkson No. 7 and Harvard No. 10 in both polls. The ECAC is tied with the WCHAÂ (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, Minnesota-Duluth) for most teams in the USA Hockey poll, and the ECAC leads in the USCHO poll with Quinnipiac tied for 10th. Northeastern and Boston University give Hockey East two teams in the polls.Â
Princeton has already set a program record for wins in a season with 24 heading into the ECAC semifinals. The previous best was 22 by the 2015-16 team. Now, Princeton can make its first-ever ECAC final. Princeton is in the ECAC semifinal for the eighth time, fifth under the current playoff format (since 2002), and third time in the last four years. All seven previous times, Princeton's run has ended in the semis. Prior to the current four-year run, which has seen Princeton make the semis in 2017, 2019 and now this year, Princeton hadn't made it this far since 2006, losing in the quarterfinals in nine of the 10 seasons from 2007-16 and not making the playoffs in 2013.
Clarkson holds the all-time series lead 20-16-2 and is 16-3-1 in the last 20 games, a run going back to 2011. Princeton's last two wins over the Golden Knights have come at Baker Rink, earlier this season and in 2018. Clarkson has won the last seven over Princeton away from Baker and is unbeaten in the last eight such games since a Tiger win in Potsdam in 2013. The teams met in the 2017 ECAC semifinal, a 4-0 Clarkson win in the teams' last meeting in the ECAC playoffs, and this will be their first-ever meeting on neutral ice.
Looking at possible ECAC final opponents, the Tigers lead the all-time series with Cornell 47-40-5, and it's been back-and-forth since the 2014-15 season. Over that time, Cornell leads 8-6-2 and has won the last three meetings, including a double-OT win in last year's ECAC semifinal in Ithaca. Princeton's last win in Ithaca over the Big Red was also Princeton's last win over Cornell anywhere, 5-0 on Jan. 11, 2019.Â
Harvard leads the all-time series with Princeton 50-34-5. Princeton's last win over the Crimson came Jan. 4, 2019 at Harvard. Since Princeton ended an eight-game Harvard winning streak in the series in 2015, Princeton leads the series 5-4-2.
Princeton has been ranked in the top 10 in the nation all season and is ranked sixth this week. Statistically, Princeton is ranked sixth in the nation in goals per game (3.68) and fifth in scoring margin (+1.94/game). Princeton is sixth and tied for the best in the ECAC in power-play goals, with 25, and fifth and best in the ECAC in power-play percentage (.210).
Individually, Princeton counts three of the top 12 players in points per game in the nation in Sarah Fillier (second, 1.86), Carly Bullock (eighth, 1.65) and Maggie Connors (12th, 1.42). Clarkson's Elizabeth Giguere is the only other ECAC player in the top 12, standing third at 1.81. Those three are also in the top 11 nationally in goals per game with Bullock second (0.94), Fillier ninth (0.69), and Connors 11th (0.68). The only other ECAC players in the top 10 are Giguere (first, 1.0) and Cornell's Kristin O'Neill (fourth, 0.79).
Fillier is third nationally in assists per game (1.17), and Rachel McQuigge is fourth nationally in GAA (1.505).Â
Carly Bullock, already the program's career leading goal scorer of anyone to play in the 21st century, is a goal away from becoming just the fifth player in program history to score 30 goals in a season and the first player to do so since 2004.
