It is a win-or-go-home affair for Quinnipiac and Harvard this Saturday, Feb. 24, as the Bobcats host the Crimson in the first round of the ECAC women’s ice hockey tournament.
The Bobcats enter the playoffs 24-9-1 and 13-9-0 in the ECAC after two strong away wins against RPI and Union on the last weekend of the regular season. The Bobcats finished fifth in the ECAC with the confidence that they will have what it takes to win it.
For Quinnipiac, a lot of the success can be attributed to the impressive goaltending of Logan Angers, who posted five shutouts and a season save percentage of .936. This combined with the 15 goals each from co-captain Sadie Peart and senior forward Nina Steigauf, and the 28 assists for co-captain Kate Reilly pushed them through this strong regular season.
Harvard’s regular season had a very different look to it, as they enter this weekend on a five-game losing streak with a record of 5-22-2 and 3-18-1 leaving them in the bottom spot of the ECAC. They ended their regular season with two losses against two of the top teams in the conference in St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
The Crimson have been consistently turning to Gynn Lapp for goals throughout the season, as she leads the teams scoring with 11 goals — an astounding 29% of the teams total 38 goals on the season. Unfortunately for Harvard, the production from Lapp frequently isn’t enough to find wins.
When Quinnipiac hosted the Crimson in November, it was one-sided game, as the Bobcats coasted to a 7-1 win over Harvard, capped by a third-period hat trick from Peart. Lapp, unsurprisingly, scored the only goal for the Crimson.
When Harvard hosted, it was not much different, as a four-point game from Steigauf and a shutout from Angers saw Quinnipiac beat Harvard 8-0.
While Quinnipiac is clear favorites in the matchup, they cannot afford to underestimate the Crimson. Harvard has proved in the past that they are dangerous, pulling off surprises against teams like No.17 Boston College, who they took down via shootout on Jan. 23, and No. 7 St. Lawrence during the regular season. (Rankings according to Pairwise).
Quinnipiac’s biggest key to the game is to keep an eye on Lapp and not let her make an influence.
Overall, with the goalscoring numbers from the Bobcats and the top-shot stopping from Angers, it will be difficult for Harvard to pull out a win, but with the season on the line, Harvard won’t go out without a fight.
