University of Connecticut Athletics
Women's Ice Hockey Faces Tough Weekend Competition
10/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey
STORRS, Conn. (Oct. 19, 2007) - The University of Connecticut's women's ice hockey team will travel to both third ranked St. Lawrence and Colgate this weekend, for the Huskies' first road trip of the season.
The Huskies, currently 3-1-0 overall, received 17 points in this week's USCHO.com Division I Women's Poll, after a two-day sweep over Minnesota State. Sophomore Dominique Thibault (L'Orignal, Ont.) earned Hockey East TPS Player of the Week honors after her stellar performance against the Mavericks, where she recorded five points, including one goal and four assists.
UConn will take to the road on Friday as they travel to upstate New York to take on the St. Lawrence Saints in non-conference action. The Saints, who are ranked third in the USCHO.com standings, have a 1-1-0 overall record after splitting a non-conference series with New Hampshire last weekend. The Huskies will look to stop Carson Duggan from scoring and Sabrina Harbec from handing off the puck as Duggan leads the Saints with two goals and Harbec has recorded three assists this season. In goal for the Saints this year is Meaghan Guckian, who has recorded 44 saves in two games.
On Saturday, Oct. 20, the Huskies will travel to Colgate University to take on the Raiders at a 4:00 p.m. face off. Colgate received one vote in the USCHO.com poll but have yet to win a game this season as they post a 0-2 overall record after losses from Boston College and New Hampshire. Huskies' assistant coach, Becky Irvine, will return to her alma mater for the first time as a collegiate coach. While at Colgate, Irvine became the third all-time leader in career points and fourth in goals scored. She played in a total of 193 games as a Raider, contributing 107 points on 48 goals scored and 59 assists.
Colgate will host Providence on Friday night before taking on the Huskies on Saturday evening. UConn will be forced to contain junior Sam Hunt, who led the Raiders during the 2006-07 season with 20 goals and 19 assists. The Huskies will also look to destroy the Raiders' defensive set-up, as they hope to find the net multiple times behind the goaltending of either Emma Hamashuk or Lisa Plenderleith.
The Huskies are led by Thibault this season, as she has recorded a team high three goals and five assists. Senior co-captain Jaclyn Hawkins (Manotick, Ont.) has two goals and four assists on the year so far. Sophomore Michelle Binning (Oshawa, Ont.) is also off to a good start this season with two goals and two assists, while teammate Nicole Tritter (Toronto, Ont.) has contributed two goals and one assist for the Huskies' offense.
Goaltender Brittany Wilson (Nepean, Ont.) has a 2-1-0 record so far this season after a two-game sweep over Minnesota State where she recorded 51 saves. Wilson currently leads the Huskies with 78 saves in goal while fellow goaltender, sophomore Jennie Bellonio (Guilford, Conn.) recorded 34 saves in her first collegiate win, in just her second career start at UConn.
The Huskies will face off with No. 3 St. Lawrence on Friday, Oct. 19 at 3:30 p.m. in Canton, N.Y. before their Saturday match-up against Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y. at 4:00 p.m.
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