It’s back to the Frozen Four for the Clarkson University Women’s Hockey team! The Golden Knights advance to the NCAA Championship Tournament for the second time in three years after defeating Quinnipiac 1-0 in a quarterfinal game in Hamden, CT on Saturday afternoon.
Clarkson, which owns a 30-4-5 overall record, will face #1 seed and undefeated Boston College (39-0-0) in the national semifinals on March 18 at the Whittemore Center Arena at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. The NCAA Championship game will be played on Sunday, March 20.
Less than a week after falling 1-0 to Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship game at High Points Solution Arena, Clarkson turned the tables on the Bobcats on Saturday afternoon at the same venue. Senior defenseman Renata Fast provided the only goal and sophomore Shea Tiley posted her ninth shutout of the season to highlight the Green and Gold‘s victory.
Fast scored just 10 seconds after the opening faceoff for the quickest goal in NCAA Tournament history, while Tiley backstopped a strong defensive effort by Clarkson with 14 saves to record her ninth shutout of the season. Two of Tiley’s biggest stops came in the final seconds just as a Quinnipiac power play was coming to an end.
The Knights outshot the Bobcats 29-14, including a 10-2 margin in the opening period, as the Green and Gold handed Quinnipiac (30-3-5) its first loss of the season at High Points Solution Arena.
Clarkson was 0-of-4 on the power play and killed off all three of the Bobcats’ man-advantage opportunities.
Clarkson, which won the 2014 NCAA National Title in Hamden, CT, is now 3-0 in NCAA Tournament games on the ice at High Points Solution Arena.
The 2015-16 edition of Clarkson Women’s Hockey becomes the second group in the 13-year history of the program to reach the 30-win mark, joining the 2013-14 National Championship team.
