Women's Hockey | 2/11/2012 5:59:00 PM
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ROCHESTER, NY – The No. 1 RIT women's hockey team (21-1-1, 14-1-1 ECAC West) moved into sole possession of first place in the ECAC West after defeating No. 4 Elmira (18-4-1, 13-3-0 ECAC West), 2-1 at the Murray Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon to extend its winning streak to seven games.
Next weekend, RIT concludes the 2011-12 regular season with a pair of games at SUNY Cortland and Friday and Saturday afternoon. If the Tigers win both games, they will earn the ECAC West regular season title, home ice for the ECAC West Tournament for the second straight season, and set a program record for most wins in a regular season.
Goaltender #
Laura Chamberlain (Norco, CA/LA Selects)# was sensational in net for the Tigers, stopping 34-of-35 shots, including the final 28 she faced to record her 12th win of the season. She is now 12-1-1 with a 1.09 goals against average and .950 save percentage this season.
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Kim Schlattman (Stratford, Ontario/Cambridge Fury)# scored the game winning power-play goal on a power-play 2:02 into the third period and assisted on RIT's first goal, a power-play marker by #
Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects)# 8:59 into the game. #
Kristina Moss (Webster, NY/Buffalo Bisons)# assisted on both RIT goals, while #
Kolbee McCrea (Wawa, Ontario/Burlington Barracudas)# also drew an assist.
Caitlin Metcalf scored Elmira's lone goal 12:05 into the first period on assists from Tori Charron and Lindsay Mitchell. Elmira goaltender
Lisa Marshall made 19 saves in net for the Soaring Eagles.
Elmira out-shot Elmira, 35-21. RIT won the battle of special teams, going 2-for-6 with the man-advantage, while holding Elmira scoreless in nine attempts. RIT had to kill off a 6-on-4 Elmira power-play over the final 1:38 of regulation.
RIT Head Coach
Scott McDonald was happy to get the sweep this weekend.
"We didn't have our best stuff today, but we stepped up character-wise at the end and got a huge win," said McDonald, who is now 128-22-9 in six seasons at RIT. "Our defense, including
Kristina Moss (Webster, NY/Buffalo Bisons) and
Danielle Read (Brantford, Ontario/Hamilton Hawks) did a great job shutting down Elmira's top line all weekend. The penalty-killing unit and
Laura Chamberlain (Norco, CA/LA Selects) were the difference."
Kunichika got RIT on the board jamming in a loose puck at the side of the net to give RIT a 1-0 lead. Schlattman was able to convert a rebound off a shot from Moss for the game-winner.
The Tigers have now won at least 20 games for the second straight season, third in the last four years, and fourth in six years under RIT Head Coach #
Scott McDonald#. Last night, RIT defeated Elmira 5-1 at Ritter Arena as part of "Make the Rink Pink" weekend. RIT is now 6-8-2 all-time against the Soaring Eagles and have won four straight against Elmira in just over a calendar year. Last night, the Tigers wore special pink jerseys that are currently being auctioned off online with bidding ending at 12 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13.
Both games against Cortland will get underway at 2 p.m.
