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Women’s Hockey To Close Out Semester at Clarkson, St. Lawrence

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard Crimson (3-7-2, 2-4-2 ECAC) will jump right back into ECAC play this weekend when it travels to upstate New York to take on 11/11 Clarkson and NR/RV St. Lawrence. The Crimson is coming off a four game nonconference stretch in which it went 1-3 and defeated Hockey East rival, New Hampshire, 1-0, for its third win of the 2022-23 campaign.

Through eight ECAC games, the Crimson is tied for fifth in the conference with its first opponent of the weekend, Clarkson, as both team own nine league points. After dropping two games to Quinnipiac and Princeton, St. Lawrence finds itself tied for seventh in the conference with six points.

This pair of contests will be the final games for the Crimson before the team breaks for finals and winter vacation. 

 

Scouting The Competition

The Clarkson Golden Knights will host the Crimson in what will be game no. 21 for the team in 2022-23. The Knights have recorded the seocnd most wins in women’s college hockey while playing the second most games up to this point in the season.

Clarkson is also coming off a nonconference series in what was a split with Maine. Clarkson scored a season high eight goals in the win over the Black Bears before dropping a 4-5 contest in the second game of the set.

Clarkson’s high-powered, eleventh-ranked scoring offense is backed up by the ninth-ranked scoring defense, nationally. The Golden Knights are vulnerable on the powerplay, however, where it has surrendered 12 goals and allowed an opponent percentage of .226.

St. Lawrence will also return to ECAC action after a weekend series at Mercyhurst. The Saints split a series with the Lakers, losing 4-6 before winning the second game, 5-2. The Saints own an 8-10-0 record with four shutout wins, the eighth-highest total in the nation. It’s scoring offense (2.72 gpg) and scoring defense (2.56) rank the Saints No. 14 and No. 22 in the nation.


Last time out

Harvard played two games against Hockey East opponents last week, falling to Boston College before defeating New Hampshire, 1-0, for the team’s first non-ECAC win. The Crimson scored two goals, one by Gabi Davidson Adams and the other by Paige Lester, in the contests.

Goaltender Alex Pellicci made 43 and 34 saves in the two contests, respectively, to bring her season total to 455. The win over New Hampshire came in shutout fashion, the third such win for the Crimson this season. All three Harvard wins have come by way of the shtutout in 2022-23.

 

Della Rovere Among League Leaders in Faceoff Wins 

First-line center, Kristin Della Rovere, has been dominating in the faceoff circle so far this season, posting 213 wins on the dot. Her .627 winning percentage is good for 14-best in the country amongst qualified centers (75 or more attempts).

Despite playing fewer games, Della Rovere is still ranks fourth in the nation with her faceoff wins total of 213. The senior captain has also won 10 or more draws in 11 consecutive games, the longest such streak of her career.

As a team, Harvard ranks fourth in the ECAC with a .525 pct.

 

Penalty Kill Prowess

Harvard has been solid on the penalty-kill in 2022, holding opponents to only five goals on 35 powerplays. The mark is good for fitth in the conference and is No. 14 in the nation.

 

Pellicci Solid Between the Pipes

Sophomore goaltender, Alex Pellicci, has started every game in net for the Crimson, giving the group excellent goaltending efforts so far in 2022-23.

Pellicci has saved 40-plus shots six times this season and 50-plus shots in two contests. Her 54 and 51 save games make her just the second Crimson goaltender to record two 50-plus save games in the same season in program history. Her 54 saves against Yale was also third-most all-time for a Crimson goaltender.

Her 455 total saves is second-highest in the nation and her save percentage of .925 is good for No. 22 in the country.

Pellicci is on pace to make 1,100 saves in 2022, which would shatter the single season record of 927 set by Lindsay Reed in 2018-19.

 

Lester Leads the Nation

Sophomore forward Paige Lester has scored two short-handed goals this season, which is tied with seven other players for the most in the nation. Lester is also only the fourth Harvard student-athlete to accomplish the feat in the past ten years.

Lester’s short-handed goal against UNH also served as the game-winning goal. That is only the third time the feat has been accomplished in the last ten years and the first time since Dominique Petrie ’21 did it against Union in 2019-20.

 

Davidson Adams is Dangerous

Sophomore forward, Gabi Davidson Adams,  has started to find her rhythm as she gets more playing time in 2022-23. The winger has collected five points this season and currently ranks second on the team with four goals scored. GDA lit the lamp against Boston College (Nov. 22) after posting goals in back-to-back contests against Union (Nov. 4) and RPI (Nov. 5).

 

Youngest Team in the Nation

77-percent of Crimson skaters are sophomore or first-years, giving them the highest percentage of underclass skaters in the ECAC and in the nation. Cornell and Union are the only schools close to Harvard, as they own 70 and 68 percent marks in the undergraduate category.

 

Historically Successful 

Harvard has had a great run of success against St. Lawrence in the series history. Overall, Harvard owns a 43-17-9 advantage over the Saints. More recently, the Crimson has built up a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) dating back to 2017-18. Over the past ten seasons, Harvard is 9-5-3 when it lines up opposite the Saints.

Meanwhile in the series against Clarkson, the Crimson won the last matchup in 2021-22 to snap a seven-game skid against the ECAC foe. Harvard still owns a 19-17-5 advantage in the all-time series with the Golden Knights

 

UP NEXT

Harvard women’s hockey will pause for the Winter break before picking things up in the Spring semester. Harvard will have over one month to rest and recover before returning to action on January 7, 2023 at Fenway Park to take on Quinnipiac in the 2023 edition of Frozen Fenway. 





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