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Clarkson Travels to Northern Ireland for Top 5 Match Up vs Northeastern

12/28/2018 10:06:00 AM

Highlighted by three NCAA Championships over the previous five years, including back-to-back National Titles in 2017 and 2018, Clarkson University has played in some noteworthy games during its 16 seasons in Division I. The Golden Knights will add another highly memorable landmark moment to the program's history, as they will compete in the first NCAA women's hockey games outside of North America to open the New Year.

In a historic matchup between two Top 5 ranked teams, No. 5 Clarkson of ECAC Hockey will face off against No.3 Northeastern University from Hockey East in Belfast, Northern Ireland on January 5-6 in the Friendship Series at SSE Arena.   
 
The Clarkson University Women's Hockey games in the Friendship Series vs Northeastern in Belfast, Northern, Ireland will be live streamed by the Belfast Giants on GiantsTV.
https://live.belfastgiants.com/  
Purchase a tournament video streaming pass for £15 ($18.94) or individual games for £10 ($12.63) each.

Guided by 11th-year head Coach Matt Desrosiers and assistants Britni Smith and Tony Maci, the two-time defending National Champions enter their final non-league games of the season with a 14-4 overall record. The Green and Gold stand in fourth place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 5-3 league mark, eight points out of first, but with two games in hand on league leader Princeton. Clarkson resumes conference action on January 11-12 with a trip to New York's Capital District to face Rensselaer and Union. 

Clarkson vs Northeastern Friendship Series Notes
ECAC Hockey Standings
USCHO.com Poll
USA Today Poll
NCAA Pairwise Rankings

• In its last action before the break, Clarkson swept archrival St. Lawrence in a home-and-home North Country series on December 7-8 to snap out of a rare two-game losing skid. The Knights shut out the Saints in Canton, 4-0, and then came back the following day to earn a 3-1 victory in Potsdam. 
• The Golden Knights fly into their Friendship Series against Northeastern leading the all-time series 4-3-1. The teams started their series in the 2002-03 campaign, and last played a season ago in Boston. Last year's series was the first regular-season games for both squads. The teams played to a 1-1 draw on September 29, followed by a 5-1 Golden Knights' victory the next day.  This will be the first time the two times will play each other on neutral ice. Loren Gabel led the way last year scoring the tying goal on Friday night, before assisting on two others on Saturday en route to a three-point weekend. Elizabeth Giguere had a goal and assist against the Huskies, the first points of her career. 
• Gabel and Giguere top the NCAA scoring charts, ranking one and two in points per game. 
• Averaging two points per game, Gabel has tallied 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points through 16 games. The senior left wing is within six points of becoming Clarkson's all-time scoring leader. Through 138 career games, the 2018 Top Three Patty Kazmaier Finalist has amassed a school record 90 goals and added 86 assists for 176 points. Gabel trails only Cayley Mercer '17 (178 points) and Jamie Lee Rattray '14 (181) on the Green and Gold's scoring charts. (Clarkson's Century Club)
• Giguere leads the country in points with 35 through 18 games, recording 13 goals and an NCAA best 22 assists. The sophomore right wing, who reached Clarkson's Century Club faster than any other Golden Knight, has 106 career points (40-66) in just 59 games. The 2018 All-American has three power-play tallies, two shorthanded goals and connected for one game-winner this season.
• Junior center Michaela Pejzlova is fifth in the nation for points per game, contributing 1.61 over 18 games on 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points. She has accumulated 116 career points in 96 games and is one goal away from reaching 50 career scores.
• Graduate transfer T.T. Cianfarano has been a nice addition to the Clarkson lineup, rounding out the Knights' 20-point scorers with 10 goals and 10 assists. She has tallied a team-high four game-winners to go along with three power-play markers and one shorthanded goal. Cianfarano was ECAC Hockey Player of the Year in her sophomore campaign (2015-16) at Quinnipiac, where she ranked as one of the Bobcats' all-time leading scorers, averaging nearly a point per game with 58 goals and 52 assists through 109 games.
• Junior Ella Shelton leads the Green and Gold in scoring from the blueline with 15 points, including 13 assists, ranking sixth in the country for points per game (0.83) among defensemen.
• The Knights are ranked fourth in the NCAA in offense, averaging 3.89 points per game.
• Backstopping Clarkson's 14th-ranked defense, Kassidy Sauve posts a .929 save percentage and a 1.80 goals against average en route to a 12-3 record and three shutouts (tied for 3rd in the nation) through 15 starts. A graduate transfer form Ohio State, where she gained All-American accolades, Sauve has been named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week three times (10/1, 11/26, 12/10) this season.
• Freshman Morgan Helgeson leads the Green and Gold rookies in scoring with  four goals, with three of them coming against St. Lawrence.
• Senior defenseman Emma Keenan leads the Knights in blocked shots, 32.
• Clarkson has outscored the opponents 36-10 in the second period.
• Clarkson, which is playing a Hockey East foe for the first time this season, went 9-1 against non-league foes in the 2018 portion of the schedule.
• The Knights went 13-2-1 against Hockey East competition the past three seasons, inlcuing a 2-1-1 mark in 2017-18.
• The Knights are 9-0 at Cheel Arena and 5-4 on opponents' home ice. The Friendship Series is Clarkson's first neutral site showing. 
• Clarkson's power play is ranked 6th in the nation, clicking at 22.8% (13-57).
• The Knights have not been as sharp shorthanded, killing off 83.3% (55-66) of opponents' man-advantage chances (24th in the NCAA). Clarkson, however, was prefect in its recent series against St. Lawrence, killing off all nine of the Saints' power plays on December 7-8.
• Senior forward Cassidy Vinkle will serve as the Green and Gold's captain, while defenders, senior Josiane Pozzebon and Shelton will act as assistant captains. 

Scouting – Northeastern:
This year's Huskies squad is a much different team than the one Clarkson faced a season ago. In 2017-18, Northeastern was a 19-17-3 team, which won 12 of its games at home, and only five on the road. But this year the Huskies have been dominant no matter where the game is played. Northeastern finds itself at 13-2-2 overall and ranked #3 in the nation. The Huskies are 12-1-2 in Hockey East play and sit atop the conference. One of the biggest reasons for the team's turnaround is the elite level of play from freshman duo of Alina Mueller and Chloe Aurard, who have a combined 48 points. Mueller is sixth in the nation in scoring and leads all freshmen in scoring with 26 points on 12 goals and 14 assists. Aurard ranks 12th nationally with 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists. Their numbers are even more impressive considering the Huskies' leading scorer last year had only 34 points the whole season. Northeastern as a whole has scored 3.53 goals per game this season, sixth best in the nation. The Huskies haven't given up many goals in return because goaltenders Aerin Frankel and Brittany Bugalski have been great in net all season. Frankel has an 8-1-0 record with a staggering .964 save percentage and a 1.00 goals against average. Bugalski has a 5-1-2 record and has a .908 save percentage with a 2.35 goals against average. 
 
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