Women's Ice Hockey Begins Second Season at St. Cloud State Friday Night (7 p.m.)
Links: Live Stats | Video | Season Preview | Follow @MerrimackWIH
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Merrimack College women's ice hockey team will get the program's sophomore season underway this weekend when they battle St. Cloud State in a two-game series across Friday and Saturday in Minnesota. Friday's puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m.
The Basics
Date/Time: Fri. / Sat., Sept. 30-Oct. 1 | 7 p.m. / 4 p.m.
Records: Merrimack (0-0, 0-0 HEA) | St. Cloud State (0-2, 0-2 WCHA)
Location: Herb Brooks National Hockey Center | St. Cloud, Minn.
A Look Back at 2015-16:
- After nearly three years of planning, the Merrimack College women's ice hockey program hit the ice for Division I competition for the first time in 2015-16, diving right into arguably the best conference in the country in Hockey East.
- The Warriors registered the program's first-ever win and Hockey East win on Homecoming Weekend 2015, beating the New Hampshire Wildcats 2-1 at Lawler Rink. Redshirt sophomore Jackie Pieper (Edina, Minn.) scored the game-winning goal in the contest, which would also be the first shorthanded goal in program history.
- Head coach Erin Hamlen would go on to lead Merrimack to five wins in its inaugural season, including a Hockey East season-series win over Vermont, going 2-0-1 against the Catamounts across three games.
- Sophomores Paige Voight (St. Michael, Minn.) and Samantha Ridgewell (Outlook, Saskatchewan) would be decorated for the efforts in their first season, earning selections to the Hockey East All-Rookie squad.
- For the full season preview and video, click here!
Last Time Out:
- Merrimack cruised past Canadian club team the Cambridge Rivulettes in their lone preseason exhibition last weekend, routing the junior squad by a score of 7-0 in their first game action of their second season.
- The seven goals were highlighted by a hat trick from sophomore Katelyn Rae (Courtice, Ontario), who finished last season ranked second on the team in the three major statistics with a scoring line of 8g-10a-18p
- The other four goals would be dispersed among four different Warriors in sophomores Voight, Emily Volpe (Whitby, Ontario), Jessica Bonfe (Woodbury, Minn.) and a shorthanded tally from Annie Boeckers (Otsego, Minn.).
Last Season vs. St. Cloud
- The Warriors also opened up their inaugural season with two games against St. Cloud, as the Huskies traveled to North Andover to take on Merrimack in their program-opening series, including the national broadcasted season-opener.
- Merrimack nearly upset the Huskies in their first-ever game, scoring four unanswered power-play goals to take a 4-2 lead about halfway through the first period. But in the final eight minutes, St. Cloud would respond with four unanswered goals of their own to nab a 6-4 victory in a wild back-and-forth game.
- Rae would score the historic first goal in program history with just over two minutes remaining in the first period, while Pieper, Voight and sophomore Paige Sorensen (Plymouth, Minn.) would add their first-career goals in their first-career games.
- St. Cloud would also take the second game of the weekend series, beating the Warriors 6-2. Sophomores Felila Manu (Anchorage, Alaska) and Dominique Kremer (West Fargo, N.D.) would net their first-career scores in the game for Merrimack.
The Huskies
- St. Cloud already has two games under their belt in the 2016-17 season, both of which were conference games against the top-ranked team in the nation in Wisconsin, falling by scores of 6-0 and 4-2.
- Sophomores Hannah Potrykus and Julia Tylke netted the two goals the Huskies have scored this season. Tylke finished second on her team in scoring in the 2015-16 season with a stat line of 9g-15a-24p.
- Senior Madeleine Dahl and Sophomore Taylor Crosby have each manned the net for one game this season for St. Cloud. Dahl made 28 saves in the 6-0 loss, while Crosby made an impressive 52 saves in the 4-2 loss.
Up Next
The Warriors continue their road trip to open their sophomore season next weekend when they travel to Colgate to play the Raiders in a two-game weekend series.
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