Yale Women’s Hockey

January 23, 2015

Bulldogs Seek Winning Streak

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women’s ice hockey team looks to start a winning streak this weekend, as the Bulldogs play a home-and-home series with ECAC Hockey travel partner Brown. The two teams play Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium and Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at Ingalls Rink. Yale, coming off a 5-1 win vs. Colgate, currently sits in eighth place in the conference standings, eight points away from fourth place – the final home ice spot for the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals.

Yale (8-10-1, 5-7-0 ECAC Hockey) split last weekend’s games, falling to Cornell 2-0 Friday but beating Colgate 5-1 Saturday. With two points, the Bulldogs remained three points behind seventh-place Dartmouth, which beat No. 5 Harvard 5-2 Saturday.

Yale enters the week ranked 10th in the country in scoring offense at 3.00 goals per game, a 30 percent improvement over last season (2.31). That is the highest the Bulldogs’ scoring offense has been since the 2006-07 season, when the team averaged 3.10 goals per game.

Yale’s balanced attack includes a four-way tie for the team lead in goals (6) among junior forwardJamie Haddad (Wilbraham, Mass.), senior forward Stephanie Mock (Cape Coral, Fla.), freshman forward Courtney Pensavalle (Winchester, Mass.) and sophomore forward Krista Yip-Chuck (Whitby, Ont.). Haddad and sophomore forward Phoebe Staenz (Zürich, Switzerland) are tied for the team lead in points with 15, and Staenz is tied for the team lead in assists (11) with junior forward Janelle Ferrara (Winthrop, Mass.). Ferrara also has the distinction of having played in all 19 games this season without incurring a penalty; Yip-Chuck is next up on that list with just one infraction in 19 games.

Mock and sophomore forward Gretchen Tarrant (Colchester, Vt.) are tied for the team lead in +/- at +6. Pensavalle has a team-best three power play goals, helping the Bulldogs ranked tied for ninth nationally on the power play (20.0 percent). The Bulldogs’ penalty killing unit has allowed only two power play goals in the last 12 games, killing off 35 of 37 penalties in that span. At .849, Yale is on pace for its best penalty-killing percentage since 2010-11 (.868).

Two defensemen, junior Kate Martini (King City, Ont.) (31) and sophomore Taylor Marchin (Algonac, Mich.) (22), are Yale’s top two in blocked shots. Bulldog blue liners have also contributed 11 goals this year, led by senior captain Aurora Kennedy (Mississauga, Ont.) with four. Additionally, freshman defenseman Grace Wickens (Toronto, Ont.) notched her first career point Friday with an assist.

Senior goalie Jaimie Leonoff (Montréal, Qué.), who stopped 53 of the 55 shots she faced last weekend (a .964 save percentage), needs just two more wins this season to tie her single-season best. She is second on Yale’s all-time save percentage list (.917), third on Yale’s all-time saves list (2,777), fourth on Yale’s all-time goals-against average list (3.06) and fifth on Yale’s all-time wins list (20). Her save percentage this season is .919 and her GAA is 2.55, putting her on track for the best GAA of her career.

Yale went 1-0-1 against Brown last season. The teams tied 2-2 in overtime at Ingalls Rink, and the Bulldogs won 3-1 in Providence. Ferrara and Staenz each had a pair of assists in Yale’s win.

Brown (4-15-0, 1-11-0 ECAC Hockey) is in its fourth season with Amy Bourbeau as head coach. The Bears’ 4-6-0 start to this season was their best 10-game start since going 6-4-0 in 2004-05, but they have dropped nine in a row since then. In the last six games they have scored just four goals, and they are winless (0-8-0) on the road.

A pair of senior forwards, Kaitlyn Keon (8-6-14) and Sarah Robson (5-8-13), lead Brown in scoring. Keon and defenseman Lauren Vella are tied for the team lead in power play goals with three each. Goalie Monica Elvin has an .897 save percentage and a 3.41 goals-against average.

Report by Sam Rubin ‘95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity

Yale Women’s Ice Hockey Info

Friday at Brown, 7:00 p.m.

 

Saturday vs. Brown, 4:00 p.m.

Type: 
Internal