No. 8/8 QU Women's Ice Hockey Hosts Penn State, Travels to Princeton in First 2017 Action

Friday, December 30

Hamden, Conn.

6:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

Penn State

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No. 8/8 QU Women's Ice Hockey Hosts Penn State, Travels to Princeton in First 2017 Action

12/28/2016 12:55:00 PM | Women's Ice Hockey

By: QU Sports Information

No. 8/8 Quinnipiac Bobcats (13-4-3, 7-2-1 ECAC Hockey) vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (5-10-3, 4-3-1 CHA)
Date: Friday, Dec. 30, 2016 (6 p.m.)
Location: High Point Solutions Arena | Hamden, CT
All-Time Series vs. Penn State: 3-0-1
Home vs. Penn State: 2-0-0
Last Meeting: T, 1-1 (Oct. 12, 2014)
Head Coach Cassie Turner vs. Penn State: 0-0-0

No. 8/8 Quinnipiac Bobcats (13-4-3, 7-2-1 ECAC Hockey) vs. Princeton Tigers (9-6-1, 5-4-1 ECAC Hockey)
Date: Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017 (3 p.m.)
Location: Hobey Baker Rink | Princeton, NJ
All-Time Series vs. Princeton: 12-10-3
Away vs. Princeton: 5-6-2
Last Meeting: W, 4-2 (Nov. 14, 2015)
Head Coach Cassie Turner vs. Princeton: 1-0-0

MULTIMEDIA
Follow the Bobcats vs. Penn State on Friday

Follow the Bobcats vs. Princeton on Sunday

HAMDEN, Connecticut – No. 8/8 Quinnipiac women's ice hockey begins the second half of the 2016-17 season this weekend, hosting Penn State on Friday, Dec. 30 in Hamden. The Bobcats then head on the road, resuming ECAC Hockey play vs. Princeton on New Years Day.

LAST TIME OUT
Quinnipiac topped Union, 4-0, on Dec. 2, then bested Rensselaer, 6-1, on Dec. 3 to close out the first half of the season. The Bobcats are 13-4-3 (7-2-1 ECAC) overall so far this season, sitting in third place in the conference.

CENTURY MARK
Emma Woods (Burford, Ontario) and Taylar Cianfarano (Oswego, New York) both reached 100 career points in the Bobcats' final game before the break.Woods recorded four goals to lead the offensive charge for Quinnipiac, while Cianfarano chipped in with a goal and two assists. Woods, the senior captain, reached the century mark in 133 career games (43 goals, 57 assists). Cianfarano, a junior, reached the plateau in 94 games (56 goals, 44 assists).

SCOUTING PENN STATE

The Nittany Lions are 5-10-3 so far this season, and have lost their last four games. Penn State fell twice to St. Lawrence and twice to Robert Morris to end the first half of the season.
Laura Bowman leads the team offensively with 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points, while Amy Peterson has added 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points.

ALL-TIME vs. PENN STATE

Quinnipiac is 3-0-1 all-time vs. Penn State. Most recently, the two teams played to a 1-1 tie in October of 2014.

SCOUTING PRINCETON

Princeton is 9-6-1 on the season, and currently ranks No. 6 in the ECAC with 11 points. The Tigers host Penn State on Saturday before playing Quinnipiac on Sunday.
Princeton closed out the first half of its season on a four-game win streak, downing RPI, Union and Mercyhurst twice.
Karlie Lund has 14 goals and 12 assists for a team-high 26 points so far this year. She's fifth in the nation in goals scored.

ALL-TIME vs. PRINCETON

Quinnipiac is 12-10-3 all-time vs. the Tigers, dating back to 2001. The Bobcats have gone 12-0-2 in their last 14 games vs. Princeton.
The last time Princeton defeated Quinnipiac was on Jan. 3, 2011.

DOMINANT DEFENSE
Quinnipiac currently ranks No. 3 in the nation in team defense, giving up just 1.35 goals per contest.

SUPER CIANFARANO
Taylar Cianfarano (Oswego, New York) has six power-play scores, which ranks tied for No. 1 in the nation.

NO ASSISTS? NO PROBLEM
Kenzie Lancaster (Waxhaw, North Carolina) has four unassisted goals so far in 2016-17, which is best in Division I hockey.

IN THE POLLS
Quinnipiac women's ice hockey has been ranked No. 8 nationally in both the latest USCHO.com Poll and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women's College Hockey Poll, as announced on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13, 2016. This marks the third straight week the Bobcats have been selected No. 8 in both polls.

ECAC HOCKEY AWARDS
Sophomore forward Kenzie Lancaster (Waxhaw, North Carolina) was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Week on Tuesday, November 29. She registered a goal and two assists during the Bobcats' two Nutmeg Classic games this past weekend. She has six goals and four assists for 10 points on the season. All of Lancaster's six career goals have come in the last 10 games.

The Bobcats have won three ECAC Hockey Weekly Award this year:

Sydney Rossman (Excelsior, Minnesota) – ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week – Oct. 11, 2016
Taylar Cianfarano (Oswego, New York) – ECAC Hockey Player of the Week – Oct. 18, 2016
Kenzie Lancaster (Waxhaw, North Carolina) – ECAC Hockey Player of the Week – Nov. 29, 2016

PENALTY KILL
Quinnipiac ranked No. 2 in the nation in PK percentage last season, killing off 98-of-106 penalties (92.5 percent). This year, the Bobcats have successfully killed 60-of-69 PK chances, good for 87.0 percent.

POWER PLAY
Quinnipiac has scored on 15-of-76 power play chances thus far in 2016-17, a rate of 19.74 percent – which ranks No. 4 in the country.

JUST SCORE FIRST
Last year, Quinnipiac scored first in 25 of its 34 regular season games – going 22-0-3 in those games. The Bobcats have scored first in 13 of 20 games so far in the 2016-17 season, going 12-0-1 when scoring first.

SHOOT TO THRILL
The Bobcats are 36-2-6 in games where they outshoot their opponent, dating back to the start of last season. Quinnipiac has recorded more shots in 16 of 20 games so far in 2016-17, going 13-1-2 in that span.

GAME-WINNERS
Three current Bobcats rank in the Top 10 list of the program's career game-winning goals: With five game-winners already this season, Cianfarano ranks No. 2 all-time (16 game-winning goals), Melissa Samoskevich ranks No. 3 (9-game-winning goals), and Emma Woods currently ranks No. 8 on the list (7 game-winning goals).

IN THE ECAC
The Bobcats were picked as ECAC Hockey's favorite entering the 2016-17 season, finishing No. 1 overall in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Coaches Poll. Junior forward Taylar Cianfarano (Oswego, New York) was selected to the Preseason All-ECAC First Team. Last year as a sophomore, Cianfarano led the ECAC with 52 points.

COMMANDING THE CONFERENCE
Quinnipiac dominated ECAC Hockey play last year, going 16-2-4. The Bobcats finished with 36 overall points, three total points ahead of Clarkson – who went 14-3-5 in conference action. QU allowed just 18 goals in 22 conference games in 2015-16. The Bobcats have gone 5-2-1 in their first eight conference contests this season.

OFFENSIVE ATTACK
Quinnipiac returns three of its top five scorers from 2015-16. Cianfarano led the team with 52 points on 28 goals and 24 assists, Emma Woods (Burford, Ontario) recorded 34 points via 11 goals and 23 assists, and Melissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, CT) 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points. Nicole Connery (13g, 14a) and Nicole Kosta (10g, 15a) both graduated following the end of last season.

LAST SEASON
As a team, Quinnipiac is on the heels of perhaps its most impressive season in program history, which ended with an ECAC Hockey Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth. The Bobcats went 30-3-5 in 2015-16, earning the most wins and highest win percentage (.885) in team history. Head coach Cassandra Turner also set the NCAA Record for most wins by a first-year women's ice hockey head coach.

BENCHMARK YEAR
Other program records set in 2015-16 included: most goals scored (118), most assists (188), highest power play percentage (25 percent), highest penalty kill (92.5 percent), fewest goals allowed (35), lowest GAA (0.92), most home wins (18), longest winning streak (10 games), and longest unbeaten streak (21 games).

Player Notes
EMMA WOODS

Woods (Burford, Ontario) was unanimously voted by her teammates to be the Bobcats' captain for 2016-17 season.
Has eight goals and nine assists so far this year for the Bobcats, and 43 career goals to go along with 57 assists for 100 points.

SYDNEY ROSSMAN

Bobcats' goaltender Sydney Rossman had a .949 save percentage a season ago, allowing just .90 goals per game in 39 games (second-best in the nation). The 2016 ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Year recorded 16 shutouts in 2015-16, which is tied with former Bobcat netminder Chelsea Laden's single-season record from 2014-15.
Her current .939 save percentage and 1.09 goals-against average for her career rank No. 1 in program history.
Has five shutouts so far in 2016-17, with a .919 save percentage.
She is also an assistant captain for Quinnipiac this year.
She has 23 career shutouts, needing three more for the program tie.

TAYLAR CIANFARANO

T.T. Cianfarano recorded 28 goals and 24 assists last year, winning ECAC Hockey Player of the Year honors.
She owns the Quinnipiac program record for most goals and most points in a single-season for a sophomore.
She was selected to the Preseason 2016-17 All-ECAC First Team
Has 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points this year, and 56 goals and 44 assists for 100 points in her career.

MELISSA SAMOSKEVICH

Melissa Samoskevich has six goals and eight assists for 14 points so far this year.
She was named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team last season, after putting up 16 goals and 16 assists as a freshman.
Samoskevich has 22 goals and 24 assists for 46 career points.

MEGHAN TURNER

Meghan Turner, an assistant captain for the Bobcats in 2016-17, has four goals and 10 assists for 14 points so far this season.
She has 21 career goals and 23 career assists over four years with the Bobcats – including a career-high eight goals in 2015-16.

TARYN BAUMGARDT

Taryn Baumgardt (Innisfail, Alberta) has three goals and seven assists so far this year.
The defender has two goals and four assists for six points in 2014-15, and then three goals and 10 helpers for 13 points in 2015-16. She has nine career goals and 27 assists.

EMMA GRECO

Senior Emma Greco (Burlington, Ontario) has five assists so far this season to go along with a team-high 30 blocked shots.
She has two goals and 18 assists for 20 career points.

KENZIE PRATER

Kenzie Prater (Hudson, Wisconsin) has four goals and four assists for eight points in her first 16 games as a Bobcat.
She was a member of the 2016 U.S. Women's Under-22 team, alongside teammates Cianfarano and Samoskevich.

KENZIE LANCASTER

Kenzie Lancaster (Waxhaw, North Carolina) has eight goals and four assists for 12 points this year, and eight goals and five assists for 13 career tallies.
She has five scores in the last five games.

RANDI MARCON

Randi Marcon (Winnipeg, Manitoba) has three goals and an assist for four points so far in 2016-17, and seven goals and three assists for 10 career points.

RAQUEL PENNOYER

Raquel Pennoyer (Rehoboth, Massachusetts) has one goal and two assists for three points this year, and three goals and six assists for nine career points.

KATE MACKENZIE

Freshman Kate MacKenzie (Winnipeg, Manitoba) has two goals and three assists in her first season with the Bobcats. She tallied all three assists in the Oct. 29 victory over Brown.

KATI TABIN