Box Score

HAMDEN, Conn. - Freshman Heather Hughes tallied four points, including her first career hat-trick to lead Quinnipiac University to a 6-1 victory over Rensselaer in ECAC Women's Hockey action on Saturday.  With the win, the Bobcats improve to 4-3-1 overall and a perfect 2-0-0 in conference play.  The Engineers drop to 2-5-3 with a 0-1-1 ECAC Hockey mark.

Quinnipiac struck quickly against visiting RPI, taking a 1-0 lead at 4:03 off a power play tally by Bethany Dymarczyk (Hamden, CT/The Westminster School).  The Bobcats wasted little time in gaining the two-goal advantage as Hughes (Stouffville, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) posted her first goal of the evening at 4:29.

Hughes pushed the home team's lead to 3-0 at 10:51 after she converted a pass from Dymarczyk on the power play.  Senior Janine Duffy (Toronto, ON/National Sports Academy) made it a 4-0 advantage with just over a minute left in the opening period, scoring off an assist from Hughes and Jordan Elkins (Wasilla, AK/Wasilla) at 18:56.

After a scoreless second period, Rensselaer freshman forward Taylor Horton (St. Thomas, ON/Bluewater Hawks) cut the deficit to three (4-1) at 16:25 of the final stanza.  Senior winger Allysen Weidner (Wichita, KS/Shattuck St. Mary's) earned the assist after she found Horton in the slot, who then buried the puck between the pads of Quinnipiac goalie Victoria Vigilanti (Woodbridge, ON/Mississauga Jr. Chiefs).

In an attempt to pull the game back to within reach, the Engineers pulled rookie goalie Shannon Ramelot (Bloomfield, MI/Honeybaked U19) in favor of the extra-attacker, but Hughes completed her hat-trick at the 17:00 mark with the empty-netter.  Quinnipiac would add a second empty-net tally 19:47 to complete the scoring.

Vigilanti finished with 29 saves for the Bobcats.  Junior Sonja van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) shouldered the loss for the Engineers, stopping four shots in 10:51 before giving way to Ramelot, who made 14 saves on the night.

Quinnipiac is back in action next Friday when it travels to Brown for a 7pm match-up.  Rensselaer is also in action next Friday as it hosts Colgate in an afternoon tilt beginning at 2:30pm.