ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Two members of the No. 2/2 nationally-ranked Elmira College women’s ice hockey team were rewarded by the United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) for their efforts during the 2017 UNO Classic, as Emma Crocker ’21 was named the conference’s Player of the Week and Kelcey Crawford ’18 was crowned the Goalie of the Week.
It marks the second week in a row and the third time this season that the league office has bestowed weekly accolades upon the Purple and Gold, as Devyn Gilman ’21 earned Rookie of the Week honors on November 21 and Sara Hughson ’18 was tabbed the Player of the week on November 7.
Crocker paced the Soaring Eagles with four points and three goals in two games against top-10 opponents at the UNO Classic. She also registered both game-winning goals, as Elmira bested No. 6/6 Middlebury, 4-1, before beating rival and then-second-ranked Plattsburgh State, 4-2. The freshman forward also extended her point streak to six consecutive games.
Against the Panthers, Crocker had a hand in each of EC’s last three goals, helping the Soaring Eagles break a 1-1 stalemate with season highs in both goals (2) and points (3). Her second goal was the result of a tremendous individual effort, as she stick-handled through two defenders along the goal line to the right of the cage, before shoveling the puck past the Middlebury keeper. In the tournament title game against the Cardinals, EC’s bitter rival from the ECAC West Conference days, the Abington, Massachusetts, native was able to get her stick on a shot from Kristin Chivers ’19 to redirect it into the back of the net, which gave Elmira a 3-2 lead in the second period.
Following her impressive weekend against some of the stiffest competition in the country, Crocker ranks second only to Gilman in freshman scoring with 1.29 points per game. She’s also tied for fifth in all of Division III in game-winning goals (2).
For the sixth time in her career, Crawford has been named the conference’s Goalie of the Week honoree, this after one of the greatest goaltending performances in program history. The fourth-year netminder recorded an incredible 62 saves and limited one of the nation’s top-10 scoring offenses to just a pair of goals in the UNO Classic championship game on Sunday. Crawford made a whopping 23 saves in the second period alone against the Cardinals, and posted 22 more while blanking Plattsburgh State in the third period to preserve the slim lead.
In addition to her victory over Middlebury in the opening round, Crawford finished the weekend with a 2-0-0 record, 95 saves, a 1.50 goals-against average and a .969 save percentage. She not only broke the previous single-game record for most saves, which was formerly held by Lisa Marshall ’14 (56), but the Purcellville, Virginia, native also surpassed Marshall (904) for fifth-place all-time on Elmira’s career saves chart with 957 stops over her four seasons donning the Purple and Gold.
On the season, Crawford leads the nation in save percentage (.970), is tied for first in winning percentage (1.000), ranks third in goals-against average (0.83) and sits one shutout shy of the lead with two through the first six starts of her senior campaign.
Crocker and Crawford will guide the second-ranked Soaring Eagles into a pair of UCHC contests in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this weekend, as Elmira is set to take on Chatham University on Friday, December 1, and Saturday, December 2. The series opener is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m., with the opening puck drop for the Saturday matinee at 2:30 p.m.
