Last week I titled my blog post, “Fit to be tied.”
Fitting, the weekend after I make that post, RIT and Plattsburgh; in one of the most anticipated showdowns of the season, tied not only once, but both of their games.
The two schools played before a sold out electric-atmosphere at the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena on Friday night and Sarah Dagg kept the Tigers’ unbeaten season alive with a goal in the final minute to tie the game up at two.
The standing-room only crowd of 2,100 smashed the Division III women’s regular season attendance record, which used to be around 1,700.
The next afternoon, neither side was able to put a puck in the net as the two powerhouses skated to a scoreless tie in front of another impressive crowd of 1,383.
RIT’s “Black Out Heart Disease” promotion generated over $10,000 donated to the Geneva General Cardiology Associates. The Tigers sold 22 special-edition black jerseys for a total of $6,927; with Katie Stack, Sarah Dagg, and Danielle Read’s jerseys all going for over $500.
The final total with t-shirts was $10,219. Impressive work RIT hockey fans.
The two ties prevented RIT head coach Scott McDonald from picking up his 100th career win. However, the Tigers and McDonald will get another crack at it this weekend when they travel to Buffalo State for a pair of games. If RIT sweeps, McDonald will have recorded 100 victories in just 127 games, which would be the second fastest all-time to only Plattsburgh’s Kevin Houle, who did it in 122 games. (Thanks to RIT Director of Sports Information, Joe Venniro for that tid bit.)
RIT holds control of its own destiny as the Tigers try and wrap up their first ECAC West regular season title. They have six games left and all are league contests. They’ll likely face their stiffest test on two separate trips down to the Murray Athletic Center to face the sixth-ranked Elmira College Soaring Eagles. The two clubs meet on Feb. 4th and 19th. As long as RIT holds serve in its four other games, the Tigers will clinch the regular season title with three points in the two games against Elmira.
Norwich also hosted a benefit game and the Cadets raised $2,267 for the SD Ireland Cancer Research Fund through jar donations, a 50/50 raffle, and merchandise sales.
Trinity showed its first sign of a kink in the armor this weekend as the Bantams lost 1-0 to Colby and then tied Bowdoin 2-2. The Bantams had been unbeaten in 11 straight coming into the weekend.
Player of the Week – Kristin Faber, Wis. Eau Claire
Kristen, a senior forward from Austin, Minn., tallied a hat trick to lead Eau Claire to a 5-3 win over Stevens Point on Friday night. She scored the game-tying goal and then scored the eventual game-winning goal with under five minutes left in the game, while short handed to life the Blugolds to an important league sweep over the Pointers. Faber also chipped in a goal in Saturday’s 3-1 win as well. She has 14 goals and five assists on the season for a team-leading 19 points.
Rookie of the Week – Laura Chamberlain, RIT
Laura, a freshman goalie from Norco, Calif. combined with Plattsburgh’s Mandy Mackrell to put on an epic display of goaltending in their series over the weekend. Chamberlain stopped 49 of 51 shots over the weekend to help RIT to two ties with fourth-ranked Plattsburgh. She recorded her fifth shutout on the season and has a 0.86 goals against average with a .954 save percentage.
Goalie of the Week – Mandy Mackrell, Plattsburgh
Mandy, a senior goalie from Cleveland, Ohio kept Plattsburgh in Friday’s game for the first 30 minutes after the Cardinals were being out shot 21-3 and still tied at zero. Mackrell made 40 stops in Friday’s 2-2 tie and then followed up with 34 more on Saturday afternoon to pick up her fourth shutout of the season. Mackrell is now 8-2-3 on the season with a 1.21 goals against average a .944 save percentage.
