Four of the top eight teams in the country descend on Potsdam this weekend as the second-ranked Clarkson University Women's Hockey program hosts the ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament at Cheel Arena for the second consecutive season and for the fourth time in the past five years.

The No. 1 seed in the tournament, the Golden Knights will battle arch-rival, 8th-ranked St. Lawrence in the first semifinal game on Saturday, face off at 1:00 p.m. Fourth-ranked Colgate will square off against 6th-ranked Cornell in the other semifinal game, slated for a 4:00 p.m. start.

Led by 10th-year head coach Matt Desrosiers and assistant coaches Britni Smith and Tony Maci, the Green and Gold take a 31-4-1 record into the weekend. The Green and Gold claimed a share of the ECAC Hockey regular season title with Colgate, both owning a 19-3 conference mark.

Clarkson vs St. Lawrence ECAC Hockey Semifinal Game Notes (pdf)  
Women's Championship Weekend to be Distributed on ESPN3 & BoxCast
2018 ECAC Women's Hockey Championship Guide
USCHO.com Poll
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll
NCAA Pairwise
ECAC Hockey Standings
 

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• Clarkson is one victory away from tying the school mark for most wins in a season,  set last year by the National Championship team (32-4-5).
• Clarkson, which has qualified for the ECAC Hockey playoffs in every year it has been eligible, is 24-20 in 14 seasons of league postseason play. The Knights are 19-14 in the quarterfinal round having won eight of their 14 series, including the past six. Clarkson advances to its eighth conference championship tournament after sweeping Yale (10-1, 4-1) in quarterfinal action at Cheel this past weekend. 
• The Knights are 4-3 in semifinal play and 21-6 all-time in ECAC Hockey postseason games at Cheel Arena.
• Clarkson is defending ECAC Hockey Tournament Champion after having won its first tournament championship in 2017. The Knights were nearly perfect at Cheel Arena last year in shutting out Princeton in the semifinals, 4-0, and blanking Cornell 1-0 in the championship game.
• Ranked among the top four teams in the national polls throughout the season, the defending NCAA Champions have been powered by the play of Top 10 2018 Patty Kazmaier Award Finalists – senior defenseman Savannah Harmon, senior goaltender Shea Tiley and junior left wing Loren Gabel. Gabel was named a Top-3 Finalist on Thursdsay.
• The Knights boasted the top-rated offense and defense in ECAC Hockey action, scoring 4.09 GPG, while allowing only 1.32 GPG through 22 league games. Overall, the Knights are ranked fourth in the nation in offense (4.06 GPG) and third defensively (1.22 GPG).
• Clarkson is second in the country in combined specialty teams play at 59.7% (166/278). The Knights rank third, both on the power play, clicking at 25.8% (34-132), and shorthanded, killing off 90.4%, (132-146).
• Tiley backstops Clarkson's stingy defense as one of the top goaltenders in the nation. She has started 35 of the 36 games, playing the second most minutes (2064:33) of all goalies. Tiley is tied for most wins in the country (30), second in shutouts (10), third in winning percentage (.871 – 30-4-1), and ranks fourth in Division I in goals against average (1.28) and save percentage (.940). Tiley earned ECAC Hockey Player of the Month honors for the third time this year (February, December, October).
• One of the top lines in the country powers the Clarkson offense. The trio of sophomore center Michaela Pejzlova, Gabel and freshman right wing Elizabeth Giguere has accounted for 48.1% of the Knights' scoring with 181 (80-101) of the team's 376 (146-230) points. Gabel,  Giguere and Pejzlova are the top three scorers overall in ECAC Hockey.
• Gabel is enjoying a record-setting year for the Green and Gold. Fourth in the nation in scoring, and third in goals per game, she has set new single-season marks for points and goals at Clarkson, both previously held by 2014 Patty Kamaizer winner Jamie Lee Rattray '14. Gabel has tallied 69 points on 33 goals and 36 assists. She ranks sixth on the Knights' all-time scoring list with 138 points (73-65) through 117 games. Named NCAA 1st Star and ECAC Hockey player of the Week, Gabel also set a new standard for fastest hat trick at Clarkson, scoring three times in a span of 2:21 in the opening 4:12 of the Game 1 win over Yale. The three-goal outing gave her four career hat tricks, a new Clarkson record. She also tallied three assists in the lopsided 10-1 victory to give her six points on the night, tying the Knights' record for most points in a game. Gabel leads the nation in plus/minus at +52.
• Nearly doubling the point total off all the other ECAC Hockey freshmen, Giguere has made a big impression in her first collegiate season. She has shattered the Clarkson freshman scoring mark with 65 points on 25 goals and a conference-leading 40 assists, tied for second in the nation for assists per game. Giguere tallied five points (1-4)  in the quarterfinal sweep of Yale.
• Pejzlova also had a big weekend to open the playoffs, scoring four goals and one assist against Yale. She has 47 points on 22 goals and 25 assists. Pejzlova, who is averaging over a point per game, is closing the gap on the century mark with 79 career points on 33 goals and 46 assists through 73 games.
• Clarkson's captain, Harmon is a steady all-round defenseman who is solid on the blueline and productive in the offensive end. The Knights' fourth leading scorer, she led all conference defenders in points with 31 (8-23), which ranks fourth in the nation, and is second in the country among defenders in plus/minus at +46. 
• Junior Rhyen McGill recorded her first career hat trick in the Game 2, 4-1 win over Yale. An unheralded Clarkson forward, she has 17 goals and eight assists along with six power-play tallies, six game-winners and one shorthanded marker.  McGill is approaching the century mark with 81 career points (40-41) through 116 games. Named to the 2017 ECAC Hockey Championship All-Tournament Team, she scored the game-winning goal in the 1-0 win over Cornell in last year's ECAC Hockey Championship.
• Sophomore defenseman Ella Shelton enjoyed her first career two-goal outing, scoring twice in the Game 1 win over Yale. She has 24 points (5-19) this season.

The Series:
The Golden Knights lead the Route 11 Rivalry 25-18-7 all-time, but trail the Saints 5-2 in postseason play, with all the games coming in quarterfinal-round play. The two rivals have not played in the postseason since the 2009-10 season when Clarkson took game one and three of the series to advance in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. Since that series, the Golden Knights are undefeated when playing the Saints at Cheel Arena. 

Clarkson won all four games against St. Lawrence this season, 4-2 and 6-1(at Cheel) in non-league action in October and 2-1 (at Cheel) and 4-1 in conference play in December.

Harmon leads the Knights against the Saints with 14 points on four goals and 10 assists in 16 games. In her first four career games against St. Lawrence, Elizabeth Giguere torched the Saints for five goals and five assists. Shea Tiley has started 16 games against the Saints going 11-2-3 with a 1.41 goals against average and a .942 save percentage. 

Scouting St. Lawrence
The Saints enter the tournament with an overall record of 20-10-4, and going 14-6-2 in the league to get the #4 seed. St. Lawrence is ranked #8 in the nation in both the USCHO.com and USA Hockey polls. 

The Saints have not found any success at Cheel Arena in recent years going 0-10-4 against Clarkson since the 2009-10 season. In the two games in Potsdam this season, the Knights came out on top winning 6-1 and 2-1 to continue their dominance at home. St. Lawrence's struggles at Cheel extend beyond games against the Knights. The Saints failed to advance in the ECAC playoffs last season, losing to Cornell 3-1 in the semifinals in Potsdam. St. Lawrence has been good on the road, for the most part, this season going 9-4-3 in away games.  After splitting its regular-season finale, St. Lawrence took Game 1 (3-1) and Game 2 (2-1) against Quinnipiac in quarterfinal action at Appleton Arena. The Saints will face an uphill battle, however, after going just 1-7 in the regular season against the teams in the field. 

The Saints have a very balanced scoring attack with three players above 38 points and six in double digits. Kennedy Marchment leads the team with 39 points on 15 goals and 24 assists. Justine Reyes and Hannah Miller each have 38 points on the year. Reyes has scored 17 times and has 21 assists, while Miller has tallied 13 goals and 25 assists. St. Lawrence has two goalies with 10 wins on the year, and both goalies got two cracks at Clarkson this season. Sonjia Shelly is 10-4-1 in 15 starts with four shutouts and owns a 1.80 goals against average to go along with a .925 save percentage. Grace Harrison is 10-6-3 with a 1.94 goals against average and a .909 save percentage.