It's about damn time I write something about what's been going on with the women's team, because it's special. Really special. This team hasn't lost a game yet, exactly one half through their regular season schedule. No other team in the country has done, not the Gophers, not the Badgers, not the Bobcats or Raiders or Tigers.
Moreover, individuals on this team are having incredible seasons while the national media continues to focus on storylines outside of the North Country. Even Clarkson is getting relatively little attention despite being the second hottest team in the country.
Grace Harrison has not allowed a goal in half the games she played this season. In less than a full season as the starter, she's now recorded 11 career shutouts, one short of Kyle Hayton's career mark. She's won 20 of the 35 games she's played in, which also means that more than half her career wins have been shutouts. If we'd like to dive deeper, in the 33 games in which she's started, she's actually 20-6-6.
Kennedy Marchment scored 29 points in 36 games in each of her first two seasons with St. Lawrence, a pretty darn good number if you ask me. This year, in 16 games, exactly half the games SLU will play in the regular season this year, she has 27 points. She's currently tied for third in the country with those marks. She has been equally as deadly on the power play (2 goals) as she has been on the penalty kill (2 goals). She also has two game winning goals.
Brooke Webster just tied a SLU program record for most consecutive games with a point at 18 games, finally failing to register one in the most recent win, a 3-0 shutout (obviously) over Penn State. She's scoring 1.5 points per game, setting her up to bury her most productive season, 37 points a year ago, where she recorded .97 points per game.
Hannah Miller is quietly (not really quietly) becoming the player we expected her to be, with 19 points in 16 games as the third member of the Saints top line. Justine Reyes is also playing quite well with 13 points in 16 games, and Nadine Edney seems to have set her sights on never recorded another assist, as she has just a lone apple to accompany her 6 goals. Kirsten Padalis is just a point short of her best season in terms offensive production, all while anchoring the country's best defense and penalty kill, a defense that has allowed just two goals in its last ten games.
Rookies Kalie Grant and Kayla Vespa, along with Edney, are starting to find a rhythm as a trio on what could be called the third line, but shouldn't be given its recent production and the amount of ice time it gets.
So, to summarize, the nations only undefeated team, the top ranked defense and the best penalty kill. The nations best goalie in terms of save percentage (.931) and shutouts (7), the nations third leading scorer and the nations fifth leading scorer, all the while remaining one of the toughest road trips in the ECAC.
Yeah, its special, and I have to actively force myself not to just randomly look at the PairWise and enjoy looking down on Minnesota, Wisconsin, BC and, most definitely Quinnipiac and Clarkson.
But, how long can it last? In my best guess, a frozen four berth at the very least.
It's too early to predict anything in the NCAA tournament in terms of seeding, so I won't even talk about that, but you'd be hard pressed to find too many teams that SLU would theoretically run into as the fifth or sixth seed in the tournament, to where they'd only fall if they didn't win the ECAC tournament.
But about the ECAC tournament...
At this point, I really can't see SLU finishing below second in the regular season. With tough tests awaiting in Clarkson this weekend, it's not unreasonably to think that the unbeaten streak could end here, but SLU is 27 seconds away from being 2-0-0 against the Golden Knights this year, so at worst, a split from this weekend leaves the Saints in need of a tie-breaker over Clarkson, who appears to be the only true comparison within the ECAC, along with perhaps Quinnipiac, to ensure a regular season title and the #1 seed. They already have wins over the Bobcats and Princeton, both in the typical shutout fashion, but have not faced Cornell or Colgate, who can't be counted out as potential losses, or even ties in ECAC play.
This weekend will reveal quite a bit regarding both the ECAC tournament and the NCAA tournament. If SLU can secure home-ice through the ECAC tournament, which will probably culminate in a dream Clarkson-SLU scenario, it makes their path to the tournament championship that much easier. An ECAC tournament victory, with five losses on the year (not improbable given the remaining schedule) puts them at worst as the #3 seed, facing the sixth, likely to be Clarkson, Quinnipiac or Bemidji State. I don't know much about Bemidji other than that their goalie is fantastic, but they don't seem unbeatable, and neither do Quinnipiac or Clarkson, whom the Saints have already beaten once this season.
Which brings us to what I predict the Frozen Four to be: #1 Wisconsin, #2St. Lawrence, #3Minnesota, and #4 Boston College.
Of course, things can change in a heartbeat in hockey for any number of reasons, but as the records, statistics, and eye-tests stand at this point, that's the way I see things shaking out. Who the hell knows what will happen at that point, but I'm a Red Sox fan, so I'll keep the 2004 ALCS motto going as I sign off... why not us?
Moreover, individuals on this team are having incredible seasons while the national media continues to focus on storylines outside of the North Country. Even Clarkson is getting relatively little attention despite being the second hottest team in the country.
Grace Harrison has not allowed a goal in half the games she played this season. In less than a full season as the starter, she's now recorded 11 career shutouts, one short of Kyle Hayton's career mark. She's won 20 of the 35 games she's played in, which also means that more than half her career wins have been shutouts. If we'd like to dive deeper, in the 33 games in which she's started, she's actually 20-6-6.
Kennedy Marchment scored 29 points in 36 games in each of her first two seasons with St. Lawrence, a pretty darn good number if you ask me. This year, in 16 games, exactly half the games SLU will play in the regular season this year, she has 27 points. She's currently tied for third in the country with those marks. She has been equally as deadly on the power play (2 goals) as she has been on the penalty kill (2 goals). She also has two game winning goals.
 |
| Kennedy Marchment's 27 points put her third in the country (PC: Jack Lyons) |
Hannah Miller is quietly (not really quietly) becoming the player we expected her to be, with 19 points in 16 games as the third member of the Saints top line. Justine Reyes is also playing quite well with 13 points in 16 games, and Nadine Edney seems to have set her sights on never recorded another assist, as she has just a lone apple to accompany her 6 goals. Kirsten Padalis is just a point short of her best season in terms offensive production, all while anchoring the country's best defense and penalty kill, a defense that has allowed just two goals in its last ten games.
Rookies Kalie Grant and Kayla Vespa, along with Edney, are starting to find a rhythm as a trio on what could be called the third line, but shouldn't be given its recent production and the amount of ice time it gets.
So, to summarize, the nations only undefeated team, the top ranked defense and the best penalty kill. The nations best goalie in terms of save percentage (.931) and shutouts (7), the nations third leading scorer and the nations fifth leading scorer, all the while remaining one of the toughest road trips in the ECAC.
Yeah, its special, and I have to actively force myself not to just randomly look at the PairWise and enjoy looking down on Minnesota, Wisconsin, BC and, most definitely Quinnipiac and Clarkson.
But, how long can it last? In my best guess, a frozen four berth at the very least.
It's too early to predict anything in the NCAA tournament in terms of seeding, so I won't even talk about that, but you'd be hard pressed to find too many teams that SLU would theoretically run into as the fifth or sixth seed in the tournament, to where they'd only fall if they didn't win the ECAC tournament.
But about the ECAC tournament...
At this point, I really can't see SLU finishing below second in the regular season. With tough tests awaiting in Clarkson this weekend, it's not unreasonably to think that the unbeaten streak could end here, but SLU is 27 seconds away from being 2-0-0 against the Golden Knights this year, so at worst, a split from this weekend leaves the Saints in need of a tie-breaker over Clarkson, who appears to be the only true comparison within the ECAC, along with perhaps Quinnipiac, to ensure a regular season title and the #1 seed. They already have wins over the Bobcats and Princeton, both in the typical shutout fashion, but have not faced Cornell or Colgate, who can't be counted out as potential losses, or even ties in ECAC play.
This weekend will reveal quite a bit regarding both the ECAC tournament and the NCAA tournament. If SLU can secure home-ice through the ECAC tournament, which will probably culminate in a dream Clarkson-SLU scenario, it makes their path to the tournament championship that much easier. An ECAC tournament victory, with five losses on the year (not improbable given the remaining schedule) puts them at worst as the #3 seed, facing the sixth, likely to be Clarkson, Quinnipiac or Bemidji State. I don't know much about Bemidji other than that their goalie is fantastic, but they don't seem unbeatable, and neither do Quinnipiac or Clarkson, whom the Saints have already beaten once this season.
Which brings us to what I predict the Frozen Four to be: #1 Wisconsin, #2St. Lawrence, #3Minnesota, and #4 Boston College.
Of course, things can change in a heartbeat in hockey for any number of reasons, but as the records, statistics, and eye-tests stand at this point, that's the way I see things shaking out. Who the hell knows what will happen at that point, but I'm a Red Sox fan, so I'll keep the 2004 ALCS motto going as I sign off... why not us?
Comments
Post a Comment