#2 St. Lawrence v. #7 Clarkson

Yessiree! Playoffs! While the men are working on nailing down one of the most successful regular seasons in recent history at Princeton and Quinnipiac, the Women are looking to make their mark by winning their first ever ECACHL playoff series against the hated Saints of St. Lawrence in a best of three series in Appleton Arena.

Some thoughts:

Clarkson is 1-4-1 all-time against St. Lawrence, and has never won at Appleton Arena. Despite this, Clarkson has played well in Canton, taking the Saints to the wire several times.

Despite having 25 wins already this season, St. Lawrence is ranked fifth in the Women's PWR. This series isn't just critical to their ECACHL hopes, but could make some significant waves in the NCAA tournament as well. In addition, Clarkson is currently a Pairwise TUC, but without a win this weekend, would likely be knocked out of that status, effecting a number of teams positions.

This series will be squarely on the goaltender Senior Kira Hurley and the defensive corp in front of her She has rebounded nicely from her mid-season injuries to keep the Knights competitive against strong Dartmouth and Harvard teams. She'll need to do the same here.

In the past Clarkson has had success against St. Lawrence when they've been able to cut down their offensive opportunities. Again, this means staying out of the box, forcing St. Lawrence to take bad shots that Hurley can handle easily, and making the most out of opportunities that are created from blocked shots that pop out of the zone. In Clarkson's lone victory against St. Lawrence they were outshot 34 to 8, but won 2-0.

Clarkson will need to see production from the freshman trio of Eusepi, Lavoie, and Selina. This will definitely be Marie-Jo Gaudet's time to shine as well. The sophomore has an 8-12-20 line, and is really standing out on a team that will lose a lot of its leaders at the end of this season.

Pleasant Surprises:

Clarkson was one of three teams to take a point from #1 Mercyhurst this season. The others? UConn and St. Lawrence.

Christine Balikowski is quietly putting together her third consecutive solid season. The defenseman has ten goals and six assists this season.

Amanda Dittmer has twelve assists this season, equalling her total from 2004-2005.

Stephanie Hansen has recorded an 11-3-0 record in 15 games during Kira Hurley's absence. The senior has a 1.59 GAA, .917 Save Pct, and three shut outs in her senior campaign, helping to lead the Knights to their playoff berth.

Lindsay Williams is a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award again this season. The senior captain was selected from a group of 13 nominees earlier this season.

Interesting notes:

Clarkson is 1-0-3 in OT this season.
Clarkson is 14-1-0 when leading after two periods, and 0-6-1 when trailing.
Clarkson is a dominant 1st and 2nd period team. Outscoring opponents 67 to 37, while being outscored 31-25 in the 3rd.
Clarkson is 6-9-1 when their opponent scores first. A very good record actually.

CHF Prediction:

SLU 4, Clarkson 2
Clarkson 3, SLU 2 (OT)
SLU, 5, Clarkson 2