By Matt McAuliffe

Nov. 4 of the 2016-2017 season is a date the Quinnipiac womens ice hockey team circled on their calendars as soon as they stepped off the ice on March 12. On March 12 Clarkson University eliminated Quinnipiac from the NCAA tournament, and robbed Quinnipiac of its first Frozen Four appearance. Clarkson defensemen Renata Fast scored the games one and only goal of the game in the first ten seconds, making the Bobcats season come to a screeching halt. Clarkson was able to hold on to the lead for the rest of the game and sneak into the Frozen Four.

“We would love to change the first 30 seconds of that game.” head coach Cass Turner said.

This Friday the two teams meet for the first time since March 12. The no. 1 and no. 2 teams in the ECAC last year meeting up for the first time this season, and in the same building, that it all ended on last year for the Bobcats. These two factors alone could be enough for Quinnipiac to edge past Clarkson, and to get revenge.

“No better way to face Clarkson this year than in our building again, and our team is excited and motivated to play them.” Turner said.

This game is an ECAC Championship preview, as both teams met in the 2016 ECAC Championship Game last year, where this time Quinnipiac was able to top Clarkson 1-0. The only goal scored came 18 minutes into the game, as Quinnipiac senior forward Nicole Brown scored the only goal of the game.

Clarkson is a team that has also come out strong this season as they are the eighth best team in the nation and are 2-0 in ECAC play after beating Harvard and Dartmouth. For Quinnipiac, facing Boston College in out of conference play, then playing the teams that finish in the bottom two spots in the ECAC last year with Yale and Brown, and now playing the team that came in second in the conference last year can be a difficult adjustment when it comes to competition. Adjustments like this can be challenging for teams, and can affect the outcome of games.

“Every team you face has different strengths, and I think that’s what we saw with Yale and Brown. In both games it challenged us to be a stronger offensive team. The great thing about having played Boston College is we know we can defend the top team in the country, now combine that with the confidence we gained offensively, I think we are in a really good spot.” Turner said.

The goalie battle between Quinnipiac’s goalie Sydney Rossman and Clarkson’s goalie Shea Tiley. This is an intriguing individual matchup as both were to be ECAC goalie of the year last year, but Rossman was the one who was rewarded the title. Rossman last year recorded 11 shutouts, and had a save percentage of .949. Tiley had a save percentage of .930, and recorded 9 shutouts.

“We have to respect them, but at the same time we have to understand we can beat them, and it just takes one goal, it is going to be a really close game, but we have to stay confident”, Rossman said.

Rossman heading into this game is two shutouts away from tying the program record in shutouts, and three shutouts away from breaking it.
“I try not to think too much about shutouts, I mean obviously it would be a cool record to have, but a lot of times in hockey they are not going to be zero to zero games, I focus on giving my team the best chance to win every game”, Rossman said towards breaking the record.

Defensive contests seem to be the theme when these two teams meet, but in recent practices for the Bobcats there has been a focus on trying to be dominate on both sides of the puck. Quinnipiac’s main focus will be trying to control the powerful forecheck.

“They are a 1-2-2 forecheck, so we have to play our game, we are focusing on being mentally and physically prepared, no video this week on Clarkson, just power play and penalty kill stuff”, top goal scorer T.T. Cianfarano said.
In this ECAC Championship preview the puck drop is scheduled for 6 pm in the High Point Solutions Arena, and is a game that will be full of energy, heart, and good hockey.