SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - The Union College women's hockey team will host the seventh annual Pink at the Rink on Saturday January 18 at 4 p.m. in the confines of Messa Rink.
The game is dedicated each year to raising cancer awareness and helping members of the Union College campus community battling cancer and supporting those living the effects of the disease.
Donations will go to Kristen's Kause, a Union College Athletics Department wide imitative that was put in place two years ago to support 11-year old Kristen Shinebarger as she overcomes the devastating effects of Ewings Sarcoma. The Pink at the Rink game will also be dedicated to members of the Union community affected by cancer, including baseball student-athlete Justin Lloyd and men's lacrosse student-athlete Nate Greenberg.
The women's hockey student-athletes has been selling pink bracelets, ribbons, tee shirts and raffle tickets all week long during common hour in Reamer Campus Center.
The Pink at the Rink game comes as the second game of the home-and-home series with backyard rival, RPI. The Dutchwomen will travel to Houston Field House on Friday night to take on the Engineers at 7 p.m. before returning to Schenectady on Saturday.
The Dutchwomen last faced the Engineers last season in which they suffered 2-1 and 2-0 defeats in another home-and-home series.
For more information on Kristin Shinebarger and Kristin's Cause please click
here.
Last Time Out
The Dutchwomen broke the program record in wins on Friday with a 2-1 win over Princeton, their first in program history. The Dutchwomen's eight season wins came with 13 games left in season and plenty of time to increase on their mark. The Dutchwomen came close to downing #10 Quinnipiac but a late third period goal by the Bobcats was the only scoreboard tally as Union fell 1-0.
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Senior forward Stefanie Thomson broke the deadlock early in the second period with a power play tally. Thomson skated into the slot and received a pass from junior Christine Valente and fired a one-timer past Tiger goaltender Kimberly Newell. Senior defenseman Maddy Norton picked up her 13th assist of the season after feeding Valente from the point.
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Sophomore forward Kathryn Tomaselli added to the Dutchwomen added the eventual game-winner just under two minutes later. Tomaselli wrestled a puck away from a Tiger defenseman along the Union blue line and skated down on a breakaway. She deked backhand-to-forehand before depositing the puck past a sprawling Newell. The unassisted goal was scored at 4:06 of the second period.
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The Tigers pulled within one with less than five minutes remaining in the third period after Cassidy Tucker fluttered a backhand past junior goaltender Shenae Lundberg. She was assisted on the play by Hillary Lloyd and Jaimie McDonell.
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Princeton would attempt a valiant comeback effort in the third period but eventually came up short after several big saves form junior Shenae Lundberg down the stretch. The Tigers eventually pulled Newell in favor of the extra attacker but the Dutchwomen held on despite losing Valente as she crawled to the bench after breaking her skate blade in the final moments.
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Lundberg finished the game with 28 saves and as she picked up her eighth win of the season.
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The Dutchwomen held the Tigers off the board on their two power play attempts as their high powered power play tallied a goal on four attempts.
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The Dutchwomen also helped Lundberg by blocking 27 shots to Princeton's two. Senior forward Stefanie Thomson led the way with five blocks.
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On Saturday Quinnipiac forward Amanda Colin tallied the game winner off a wrist shot from the slot. Nicole Connery and Nicole Brown tallied assists on the game-winning goal.
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The first and second periods came and went without much stop in the flow of play. The Dutchwomen were the first to receive a power play which came after Connery was sent to the box for interference. The Dutchwomen's fourth-ranked power-play was unable to capitalize on their only power play attempt.
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Union was finally sent to the box with under five minutes to play when junior defenseman Alex Tancrell-Fontaine was given a roughing penalty. The Dutchwomen killed off the late penalty kill and pulled Lundberg in the final minute in favor of the extra attacker but were unable to capitalize. The period ended without the Dutchwomen registering a shot on goal.
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Junior goaltender Shenae Lundberg tallied 35 saves in the game. She stood strong for the Dutchwomen down the stretch tallying 14 saves in both the second and third periods. She held the high-powered Bobcats offense off the board until the final minutes of the third period.
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The Dutchwomen held the advantage in both blocked shots and faceoffs. Senior captains Ashley Johnston and Maddy Norton led the Dutchwomen in blocks with three as they out-blocked Quinnipiac 14-8. The Dutchwomen edged the Bobcats in the faceoff circle 26-23. Junior forward Christine Valente led the Dutchwomen with 15 faceoff wins.
Scouting the Engineers
RPI currently finds themselves clinging to the final ECAC playoff spot after picking up 9 points with a 4-5-1 conference record. The Engineers, who are 8-11-2 overall, are coming off a 3-2 win over #10 Quinnipiac and 4-4 tie with Princeton. Like the Dutchwomen, the Engineers have secured wins over Providence and Brown but have fallen to Dartmouth, UConn, and Princeton, all of whom Union has defeated so far this season.
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RPI is middle-of-the-pack in most statistical categories. Their penalty kill (85.9%) and power play (16.2%) are ranked 16th and 17th respectively. RPI averages 10 penalty minutes a game, which ranks 16th in the nation.
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Junior forward Taylor Mahoney (6-7-13) leads the Engineers offensively. Sophomore Lauren Walsh leads the team in goals with nine (9-3-12).
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Freshman defenseman Heidi Huhtamaki (2-9-11) supplies the offense from the blue line. She currently ranks tied for 19th in the nation in points per game from a defenseman. The defense is led by junior co-captain Kathryn Schilter. She rounds out a balanced group of two freshman, two sophomores, two juniors and senior Madison Marzario.
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Junior Kelly O'Brien has handled the majority of the goaltending duties on the season. O'Brien has posted a .914 save-percentage to go along with a 2.16 goals-against-average. She also has recorded shutouts over Robert Morris and Colgate this season.
Powerful Power Play
The Dutchwomen have been dynamite on the power play this season. They currently rank fifth in the nation in power play percentage 21.3% (19-89). Their 19 goals and .86 ppg/game are good for 6th and 7th best in the nation respectively. They have scored nearly half (.452) of their total goals on the power play, which is the most among DI teams. They have averaged 2.5 points per power play, (55 total points) which ranks sixth in the nation.
Senior
Stefanie Thomson is currently tied for first in the nation with 5 power play goals. Junior
Jessica Kaminsky has also been impressive on the power play. She is tied for second in the nation in power play goals with 4.
Block Party
The Dutchwomen have done their fair share of shot blocking this season. Through 22 games they have blocked 383 shots, second best in the nation. Their 17.41 shot blocks per game is the second highest average in the nation. Senior defenseman
Maddy Norton currently ranks fifth in the nation in blocks (56) and sixth in blocks per game (2.55).
ECAC Weekly Awards
The Dutchwomen have earned three ECACH Weekly awards through the first half of the 2013-14 season. Junior goaltender
Shenae Lundberg has been named Goaltender of the Week twice while senior forward
Stefanie Thomson has been named Performer of the Week once.
