Saturday, February 27 – ECAC Quarterfinals vs. Cornell, 2:00 p.m. 

 

The Colgate women's hockey team will take on top-seeded Cornell in the quarterfinals of the ECAC Hockey playoff series this weekend at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y. The best-of-three series begins on Friday at 3:30, followed by a 2 p.m. game on Saturday. If necessary a third game will be played on Sunday at 2 p.m.

 

Cornell – The Big Red won their first ever ECAC Hockey regular season championship this past Saturday, Feb. 20 with a 6-1 victory against Union. This also marks the first time in history that Cornell will host a quarterfinal series. The squad earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs with a 14-2-6 league record and an overall mark of 15-8-6. The Big Red are 9-5-2 at home in James Lynah Rink and are riding a five-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 19-2 in those last five games. Cornell's last loss came at Clarkson, 2-1, back on Jan. 30. The squad is led by sophomore Catherine White with 33 points off of a team-high 26 assists to go with seven goals. Freshman Laura Fortino has nine goals and 17 assists while sophomore Chelsea Karpenko leads the squad in goals with 15 to go along with nine assists. Sophomore Amanda Mazzotta heads the Big Red in goal sporting a 15-7-6 record along with .924 save percentage and 1.45 goals against average. Cornell won its first-ever ECAC Hockey regular season championship this past Saturday with a 6-1 victory over Union. Prior to this season, Cornell had never finished higher than fifth in the regular season.

 

Cornell – The Raiders have the advantage, 11-4-3, in their all-time series against the Big Red including a 3-3 draw and 6-0 loss earlier this season. Katie Stewart had two goals for Colgate with Ali Edell (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) adding the game-tying goal in the home draw against Cornell on Jan. 22. The next day the Raiders traveled to Ithaca to once again face the Big Red. Cornell shutout Colgate 6-0 at James Lynah Rink with Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau scoring two goals apiece, while Catherine White finished with three assists. Lisa Plenderleith had 32 saves in the loss and made 33 stops for the tie the previous day. Cornell's Amanda Mazzota finished with 32 saves for the weekend.

Katie Stewart leads the Raiders, and is tied for second among scoring leaders in the ECAC, with 39 points off of 15 assists and a league-high 24 goals. Senior Evan Minnick is second in scoring for the Raiders with 24 points from nine goals and 15 assists while freshman Brittany Phillips in adds 20 points off of 11 goals and nine. Seven other players have scored in the double-digits for Colgate.Goaltenders Lisa Plenderleith and Kimberly Sass have split time between the posts this season. Plenderleith holds 10-10-2 record to go with a .891 save percentage and 3.15 goals against average. Sass is 2-8-2 on the season with a .864 save percentage and 4.24 goals against average.

Colgate senior forward Katie Stewart (Exeter, Ont.) of the women's hockey team was named to the 2009-10 ECAC Hockey all-league first-team, as announced by the League on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Stewart is the first ever Colgate forward to be named to the first-team. She leads the Raiders' offense with 39 points so far this season coming from 24 goals and 15 assists. Stewart currently leads the League with 18 goals in 22 conference games and was tied for fourth in overall scoring in conference action with 25 points. During the regular season Stewart broke several Colgate records, including most goals in a single season and most goals by a forward. Her 39 points tied three previous players for most points scored in a single season. Stewart scored her 50th career goal back against Princeton back on Feb. 5 and on Feb. 13 became one of just three Colgate players to ever score four goals in a single game. Over her career Stewart has amassed 99 points (56-43) to put her in sixth place on the Colgate career scoring list. Her 56 career goals places her third on Colgate's career goal list.

The Raiders were selected to finish eighth in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Poll as chosen by conference coaches. The Raiders received a total of 52 votes, while top-choice St. Lawrence grabbed the No. 1 spot with 107 votes including three first place votes.

 

Head coach Scott Wiley is in his eighth season at the helm of the Raiders. Wiley led last year's team to a school record 19 wins, including an eight-game unbeaten streak in January. The 2003-04 ECAC Coach of the Year has high hopes for this year's team and will look to make this the eighth straight ECAC playoff appearance.

 

All fans will be admitted to all three games of the playoff series free of charge. For those unable to make it to Lynah Rink to see the game in person, live streaming video will be available through the Cornell Redcast subscription service. Single-game passes are available for purchase on Cornell's Redcast service.