ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals at No. 3 Clarkson Up Next for No. 12 Princeton

A berth in the ECAC Hockey semifinals is at stake this weekend when No. 12 Princeton heads to No. 3 Clarkson for a best-of-three series beginning Friday.

at Clarkson, Friday, 6 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Scoring
Saturday, 3 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Scoring
Sunday, 3 p.m. (if necessary) | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Scoring

In the Rankings: Princeton stands No. 12 in both the latest USCHO and the latest USA Hockey/The Rink Live national rankings. ECAC Hockey has seven teams ranked in the 15-team polls, in No. 3/3 Clarkson, No. 5/5 Colgate, No. 6/6 Cornell, No. 7/7 St. Lawrence, No. 9/9 Quinnipiac, No. 12/13 Princeton and No. 13/13 Yale.

Princeton in the ECAC Hockey tournament: Princeton will be aiming to make the ECAC Hockey semifinals for the fourth time in the last five competitive seasons, making the semis in 2019, winning the tournament in 2020, missing the 2021 season due to the pandemic, making the semis in 2022 after becoming the first eighth seed to win a three-game quarterfinal series from a top seed, doing so at Harvard, and giving Colgate a run in 2023 with all three games decided by one goal each and the Raiders taking two of the three.

Kaz Watch: Sarah Fillier, a four-time ECAC Hockey Forward of the Week this season, entered the week leading the nation in goals per game (1.04), No. 6 in power-play goals (eight), and No. 7 in points per game (1.52). Fillier had a hat trick in the ECAC Opening Round game against Dartmouth last Saturday, her third hat trick of the season. Fillier was twice named a Kazmaier Award top-10 finalist, in 2019 during her freshman season and in 2020 during her sophomore season.

Sophomore standouts: After Sarah Fillier, Princeton's next three leading point scorers are all sophomores, and all three have outperformed their rookie totals. Issy Wunder (8G/23A/31P) had 18 points a year ago on nine goals and nine helpers, and she's had six assists over the last four games. Emerson O'Leary (6G/23A/29P) had 11 points last year on seven goals and four assists, and she's had seven assists over the last four games. Sarah Paul (15G/6A/21P) had five points on two goals and three assists during an injury-shortened seven-game season in 2021-22 before missing all of last season due to injury.

Fillier Climbs the Charts: Here's an update on where Sarah Fillier stands on Princeton's career points, goals, and assists list:

Points: Fillier stands fourth, with 192. She's the program's highest-scoring player of the 21st century, is eight points from becoming the fourth player in program history (first since 1995) to reach 200 points, and is 15 points out of a third-place tie (207).

Goals: With 91 goals, Fillier is sixth and four out of a tie for fifth (95) with former teammate Carly Bullock '20, who is the highest-scoring Tiger of this century. Three players, and none since 1997, have hit the 100-goal mark.

Assists: At 101 career assists, Fillier is in second place, behind only record holder Katherine Issel '95 (122). Only one player in Princeton men's program history, John Messuri '89 (118), has as many assists as Fillier.

Fillier, who was recently named The Hockey News' top PWHL prospect for the new league's 2024 draft, is among the active career leaders in Division I in several categories, including the leader in points per game (1.63), total goals (91) and goals per game (0.77), second in points (192), third in assists per game (0.86), and tied for fifth in assists (101).

Fillier with Team Canada: Senior Sarah Fillier won an Olympic gold medal with Canada at the 2022 Olympic Games, returning Canada to the top of the podium for the first time since the 2014 Games after the U.S. won in 2018. At the 2022 Games, Fillier scored eight goals to stand second among Canadians as well as among all players in the tournament, and she had 11 points to stand sixth, again both among all players and Canadians. Fillier is a three-time IIHF Women's World Championship medalist, winning gold in 2021 in Calgary, gold in 2022 in Denmark and silver in 2023 in Brampton, Ont.

The Staff: At 102-68-22, Head coach Cara Morey is in her seventh overall year and sixth competitive season (2020-21 lost to the pandemic) leading the program. Her 102 career wins are second-most in program history to predecessor Jeff Kampersal '92 (327). On Jan. 13 at Harvard, Morey became the second Princeton women's hockey coach and sixth hockey coach between the men's and women's programs to reach 100 wins. The four men's coaches who have reached 100 are Richard Vaughan (158 from 1935-59), Jim Higgins (130 from 1977-91), Don Cahoon (122 from 1991-2000), and Guy Gadowsky (105 from 2004-11). Along with Dan Gould, who returns and coaches the goaltenders, Morey has two new assistant coaches in Jamie Lundmark, who played professionally from 2001-18 including parts of six seasons in the NHL with the Rangers, Coyotes, Flames, Kings and Maple Leafs, and Melissa Samoskevich, who stands among the highest-scoring players in Quinnipiac history after graduating in 2019.

Series History: Clarkson leads the all-time series 26-17-2 overall and 12-9-1 in Potsdam. The Golden Knights carry a six-game series winning streak into the weekend, with Princeton's last win coming in the 2020 ECAC Hockey semifinal at Cornell. In Potsdam, Clarkson has won the last 10 since a 2014 tie and is unbeaten in the last 11 since the Tigers' last win there in 2013. In the ECAC postseason, the teams met in 2008, as Clarkson took two of three at home to win a quarterfinal series, in 2017, as Clarkson won a semifinal game at home, and in 2020, when Princeton won a semifinal game at Cornell. In the teams' most recent meeting, on Feb. 9 at Baker Rink, Princeton took Clarkson to overtime before a Nicole Gosling power-play goal midway through the OT period in a game where each netminder, Michelle Pasiechnyk for Clarkson and Uma Corniea for Princeton, made 27 stops. In the Oct. 28 regular-season meeting at Clarkson, Gosling also had the lone goal in the team's 1-0 win, getting it that time midway through the first period, also on a power play. Corniea made 24 stops to 15 for Pasiechnyk.

On Clarkson: The Golden Knights are 29-3-2 overall after an 18-3-1 ECAC Hockey season, closing with a four-game win streak that began with a 1-0 win over Princeton on Feb. 9 in Baker Rink. The Golden Knights leaad the nation on the PK, squelching at a 92 percent rate, in scoring defense, at 1.06 goals allowed per game, in team GAA, at 1.049, and in shutouts, with 13. Clarkson ranks sixth in total goals, at 119, fifth on the power pay, converting 28.9 percent of the time, sixth in scoring offense, at 3.50 goals per game, and eighth at the faceoff dot, at a 55 percent winning clip. Nicole Gosling ranks fourth with nine power-play goals and ninth with five game-winning goals, while Michelle Pasiechnyk leads the nation with eight shutouts, is fifth with a 1.225 GAA, and is sixth with an .860 winning percentage.

Stat Rankings: Princeton's has the nation's seventh-best faceoff winning percentage (.553), while Sarah Fillier leads the nation in goals per game (1.04) and is sixth in power-play goals (eight), while Sarah Paul is ninth in both power-play goals (six) and game-winning goals (five).

Against the top 10: Princeton's Nov. 18, 2023 win over then-No. 6-ranked Cornell was the 16th win over a top-10 team under Cara Morey, who is in her sixth competitive season as the team's head coach. It was Princeton's third top-six win of calendar year 2023, as the Tigers beat No. 4 Quinnipiac on Jan. 23 at Baker Rink and No. 3 Colgate to open the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals on Feb. 24 in Hamilton.

What's next: The winner head to the top remaining seed for the ECAC Hockey single-game semifinals and finals next weekend. In this weekend's other best-of-three quarterfinals, (1) Colgate hosts (8) Brown, (3) St. Lawrence hosts (6) Yale, and (4) Cornell hosts (5) Quinnipiac.

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