Women's Ice Hockey Hosts RPI In Three-Game Playoff Series

Free ECAC/QU Women's Ice Hockey T-Shirts to 1st 300 Fans

Happy Hosting
The Quinnipiac University women's ice hockey team will host Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this weekend in the quarterfinal round of the 27^th annual ECAC Women's Ice Hockey Championship at the TD Bank Sports Center. The Bobcats will host the Engineers in a best-of-three game series to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary). The first game will be played on Friday evening at 4 p.m., while Saturday and Sunday's games will start at 2 p.m. In their last outing, Quinnipiac defeated Brown University, 8-1, at the TD Bank.

Scouting the Engineers
RPI finished their 2009-10 season with a 14-13-6 overall record and an 11-7-4 mark in ECAC Hockey, closing the season in fifth place with 26 points. In their final weekend of play, the Engineers dropped a pair of games on the road at Cornell and Colgate. RPI's offense features nine players in double-digits offensively as they are led by senior forwards Whitney Naslund and Allison Wright with each tallying 23 points on the year. Junior goaltender Sonja van der Bliek has played 31 games between the pipes for the Engineers, posting a .929 save percentage and a 1.94 goals against average.

Tournament Talk
Eight teams will be participating in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Women's Ice Hockey Championship. The top eight teams advanced to the round, while the top four teams earned the host-position. Cornell finished in first place in the ECAC and will host the number-eight team, Colgate. Clarkson finished in second place and will host number-seven St. Lawrence, while Harvard finished in third place and will host number-six Princeton. The tournament's home teams have posted a combined record of 30-6-8 on their home ice during regular-season conference play this season.

All-League Announcements
On Wednesday afternoon, the ECAC named the three All-Conference teams and the All-Rookie team for the 2009-10 season. Quinnipiac goaltender Victoria Vigilanti (Woodbridge, Ontario) was named the lone goaltender on the All-Conference First Team, as voted by the league's coaches and administration. The Bobcats also saw two players named to the All-Rookie squad. Freshmen Vigilanti and forward Heather Hughes (Stouffville, Ontario) were both named to the five-player team, honoring the top rookies in the ECAC.

Good Things Happen In Threes
In addition to her All-Conference and All-Rookie honors, freshman goaltender Vigilanti was also named the ECAC Goaltender of the Week on Monday after her performance against Yale and Brown last weekend. Vigilanti stopped 47shots on the weekend, and recorded her fifth shutout of the season in the 1-0 victory against Yale on Feb. 19. She allowed just one goal in 31 shots in the 8-1 win against the Bears on Feb. 20, finishing the season with 17 wins overall. It was the seventh weekly award garnered by the rookie netminder.

Eight is Great
The Bobcats' offense exploded in the game against Brown last weekend, scoring eight goals against the Bears. The eight goals scored matches the most-ever scored against an ECAC opponent, as they also scored eight times against Union on Jan. 16, 2005.

Pure Power
Quinnipiac went 4-for-6 on the power play in the victory against Brown last weekend, the most power play goals they have ever scored against an ECAC opponent in program history. The last time the team scored four power play goals was on Nov. 9, 2003 in a 10-0 Quinnipiac win against Sacred Heart.

Votes Keep Pouring In
For the sixth consecutive week, the Bobcats received votes in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women's Hockey polls. Quinnipiac received 18 votes in the USCHO.com poll, and 14 votes in the USA Today poll, which more than triples the amount of votes they have received in previous weeks.

Three for Me
Senior forward Kallie Flor (Farmington, Minn.) scored three goals in the Bobcats' 2-0 weekend against Yale and Brown on Feb. 19 and 20. Flor scored the lone goal of the game in the 1-0 victory against the Bulldogs on Friday with just eight minutes to play in the third period. On the following day against Brown, the captain scored the game-opening goal just 19 seconds into the first, as well as adding the fourth goal of the game on a power play in the second period. Flor finished the regular season with 13 goals and seven assists for 20 points.

Two For You
Hughes also had a two-goal game against Brown on Feb. 20. The all-rookie forward scored the game-winning goal for the Bobcats against the Bears, scoring her sixth power play goal of the year midway through the first period. Hughes also scored the sixth Quinnipiac goal of the game, her team-leading 14^th of the year. The rookie finished the regular season with 14 goals and 11 assists for 25 points.

Rookie Career Day
Freshmen Regan Boulton (Brandon, Manitoba) and Brittany Lyons (Canton, Mass.) each set career high records in the 8-1 victory against Brown last Saturday. Each set a career-high for points and assists in a game, as Lyons dished out three, and Boulton had two on the day.

In the Nick of Time
Sophomore defenseman Jordan Elkins (Wasilla, Alaska) scored the first goal of her career in Quinnipiac's victory against Brown. During a Bobcat power play, Elkins received the puck at the right point, wound up and fired a shot that flew into the upper left corner of the net. The goal was the 12^th point of her career and her eighth of the season.

The Sophomore Storm
In addition to Elkins, three other Quinnipiac sophomores scored in the 8-1 victory against the Bears. Forwards Kate Wheeler (Oakville, Ontario) and Chelsea Illchuk (Lockport, Manitoba) along with defenseman Bethany Dymarczyk (Hamden, Conn.) scored in the win.