ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Rensselaer (7-12-5, 4-6-2 ECACH) travels to #6 Cornell (11-6-1, 8-4-0 ECACH) and #4 Colgate (20-3-1, 10-2-0 ECACH) on Friday (3pm) and Saturday (3pm), respectively, for their second conference road weekend in a row… Cornell is coming off a 3-0 week with wins over Syracuse, Dartmouth and Harvard… Colgate has won five straight games, including four in conference play.
 
KNIGHTS IN EXTRA TIME
Junior Jaimie Grigsby scored the game-tying goal with less than two minutes left in regulation with junior Lovisa Selander coming up with 41 saves, but the Engineers' effort to topple #3 Clarkson on the road last Friday fell just short in the 3-2 overtime final… Grigsby and senior captain Shayna Tomlinson led the Engineers with two points apiece… Clarkson opened the scoring early in the first period on an unassisted Michaela Pejzlova goal…. Five minutes into the second period, Grigsby won a faceoff in the Golden Knight zone that put the puck on Tomlinson's stick who found sophomore Blake Orosz who scored her fourth goal of the season to tie the game 1-1… the draw didn't last long as Elizabeth Giguere, the leading scorer for the ECACH, found the back of the net off assists from Pejzlova and Loren Gabel… down 2-1, RPI took Selander out of the net for an extra skater to tie the game on a Grigsby goal assisted by Tomlisnon and sophomore Sabrina Repaci with 1:09 left in regulation… Clarkson won the first two faceoffs to start overtime and scored 19 seconds into the extra session when Gabel scored her 16th goal of the season, finishing off a passing combination from Giguere and Ella Shelton for the 3-2 win… Selander's 41 saves was her second highest effort of the season.
 
TROUBLE IN CANTON
In the second game of the weekend, RPI fell at St. Lawrence 5-1, giving up three goals on special teams… Repaci managed to score 8:21 into the third period off an assist from junior Makenna Thomas with Selander coming up with 25 saves… the Saint's Kennedy Marchment led the contest with three points on two goals and one assist.
 
RPI LEADERS
Tomlinson (five goals, 11 assists) and Grigsby (eight goals, eight assists) are both leading Rensselaer with 16 points each… the pair currently rank 19th in the ECACH in points with Grigsby 17th in the conference in goals and Tomlinson 17th in assists… Repaci (two goals, eight assists) rounds out the top point getters with 12 points… Madeleine Burnett paces RPI rookies with six points (three goals, three assists)… Josefine Hansen tops defensemen scoring with seven points (three goals, four assists) with Repaci leading the squad with a +1 margin… Tomlinson and senior Marisa Raspa currently lead the Engineers in penalty minutes with 16 each.
 
ENGINEERS GOALTENDING
Selander, the Rensselaer single-season and career saves record holder, is 7-12-5 on the year with a 2.33 goals against average and a .930 save percentage with 23 starts…the junior ranks nationally in save percentage ( NCAA-DI, 3rd ECACH)… Selander has registered one shutout this year in a 0-0 tie against UConn back in October for her seventh career shutout… junior Kira Bombay is 0-0-1 with the tie decision coming against New Hampshire with a season-high 29 saves… Bombay has a 0.42 goal against average with a .987 save percentage over three appearances.
 
ALL-TIME VS. CORNELL
Cornell currently holds a 7-18-0 all-time record… the first matchup between the sides ended in an 8-2 final in favor of the hosting Engineers on December 1, 2006… after RPI went 3-0, the Big Red took their first win in the series 4-1 on February 16, 2008… Rensselaer led the series 4-2 until Cornell went on a 15-game win streak over a six year span.
 
RECENTLY
RPI snapped their six year losing streak on October 30, 2015 with a 2-1 overtime win on the road… after going down 1-0 in the first period, Alexa Gruschow '16 tied the game on a power play goal in the third period with Lauren Wash '16 coming up with the game-winner halfway through OT… the Engineers went on to win the next two matchups with Cornell 2-1 and 1-0, both in Troy… the Big Red snapped RPI's short three-game win streak in the most recent matchup 3-2 in February 2017.
 
SCOUTING THE BIG RED
Cornell is led by sophomore Kristin O'Neill with a team-high 15 assists and nine goals for 24 points… O'Neill ranks top in the country in points per game (10th NCAA-DI, 3rd ECACH) and assists per game (10th NCAA-DI, 3rd ECACH)… the sophomore leads the country in shorthanded goals with three on year… freshman Madlynne Mills leads the Big Red rookies with 16 points on five assists and squad-high 11 goals (6th ECACH)… the rookie is currently 11th in the country in freshman points per game with 0.89 (3rd ECACH)… Mills is also top for Cornell on power play goals with four on the year (4th ECACH)… O'Neill and Mills also have the +/- margins on the team with +15 and +6 margins, respectively… sophomore Jaime Bourbonnais (three goals, eight assists) and junior Sarah Knee (four goals, six assists) are the top scoring defenseman with 11 and 10 points, respectively… Bourbonnais is 13th in the country in points per game (0.69) for defensemen (4th ECACH)… senior Brianna Veerman has recorded the most penalty minutes for Cornell with 23… the Big Red have the third best penalty kill (90.9%) to only Saint Anselm (92.6%) and #3 Clarkson (91.1%).
 
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Marlene Boissonnault (11-4-1) is the leading netminder for Cornell with a 1.96 goal against average (16th NCAA-D1, 6th ECACH) and a .922 save percentage… the junior, with 16 starts on the season, has recorded two shutouts against Yale (3-0 W) and Dartmouth (2-0 W) with a combined 32 saves.
 
2016-17 VS. CORNELL
Last season, both sides took one goal wins at home… Rensselaer took the first game of last year 1-0 on October 28, 2016 with Repaci bringing out the heroics with less than three minutes left in the game on an unassisted goal… #7 Cornell took the second game of the series in Ithaca 3-2 with Selander coming up with 39 saves, including a 20 save performance in the scoreless second period.
 
ALL-TIME VS. THE RAIDERS
Colgate holds a slight advantage in the all-time series 16-13-6, the second longest series in program history… the Raiders took the matchup 2-1 on December 2, 1995 in Hamilton… RPI responded the following contest with a 4-2 win at Houston Field House 4-2 on February 3, 1996… over the next six games from February 1996 to February 1999, the Engineers went 4-0-2, the longest unbeaten streak in the series.
 
RECENTLY
Since RPI's 3-0 win at Colgate on November 9, 2013, the Raiders have gone 5-1-1 with an average win margin of 1.67… the Engineers last win was on February 21, 2015 in a 5-3 final at home… Kathryn Schilter '15 led RPI with a three assist performance in a game that saw a combined seven power play goals… Kelly O'Brien '15 had a game-high 34 saves for Rensselaer.
 
COLGATE LEADERS
The Raiders are led by junior Shae Labbe (11 goals, 12 assists) and senior Shelby Perry (six goals, 17 assists) with 23 points apiece… the pair of forwards are tied for 6th in the ECACH in points with Labbe 6th in goals and Perry 3rd in assists in the conference… Labbe is 2nd in the conference and 7th in the country in power play goals with five on the year… junior Jessie Eldridge rounds out the top point getters with ten goals and ten assists for 20 points… in addition, Elridge leads the squad with a +18 margin… on the defensive line, senior Lauren Wildfang leads defensemen with 19 points on three goals and 16 assists (5th ECACH)… the senior is one of the top scoring defensemen in the country ranking 8th in points per game with 0.83 (2nd ECACH)… freshman Malia Schneider (11 goals, five assists) is pacing Colgate freshman with 16 points (3rd ECACH)… currently, junior Olivia Zafuto tops Colgate in penalty minutes with 36… the Raiders are second in the conference in average goals against (1.67)… the Raiders are third in power play percentage (19.4%) while killing 89.6% on the other end (4th ECACH).
 
RAIDERS IN GOAL
Goaltenders Julia Vandyk and Liz Auby split time in the net with Vandyk starting in 16 games to Auby's eight… Vandyk, who is 13-2-1, has a 1.75 goal against average (10th NCAA-DI, 3rd ECACH) with a .930 save percentage (9th NCAA-DI, 2nd ECACH)… the junior has recorded one shutout to Princeton (2-0 W)… Auby is 7-1-0 on the season with a 1.50 goal against average (4th NCAA-DI, 2nd ECACH) and .928 save percentage (12th NCAA-DI, 4th ECACH)… the sophomore leads the Raiders with three shutouts (5th NCAA-DI, 2nd ECACH) against St. Cloud St. (3-0 W, 5-0 W) and #6/#5 Northeastern (3-0 W).
 
2016-17 VS. COLGATE
The Raiders, who were ranked seventh in the first contest, took both games with a 1-4 on the road and a 3-0 victory at home… RPI's lone goal in the series last season came from Taylor Swalbe on a power play with assists from Repaci and Amanda Kimmerle.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS
Grigsby leads the Engineers in power play points with seven on five goals and two assists which is tied for 11th in the ECACH… the junior's five power play goals are 7th in NCAA-DI with Boston College's Daryl Watts registering the most with eight on the season... on the other end, RPI has an 86.9 kill percentage.
 
CLUTCH DEFENSE
The RPI defense, led by Hansen and Burnett, is one of the highest scoring defenses in the country (15th NCAA-DI, 5th ECACH), averaging 2.25 goals per game… on the other end of the ice, the Engineers are 5th in the conference in goals against average (2.25)… senior Whitney Renn and Kimmerle lead Rensselaer in blocked shots with 57 and 50 respectively.

ON THE DRAW
Tomlinson leads RPI in faceoffs having won 58.4% of the time, with Repaci winning 47.3% of dropped pucks… as a team, the Engineers have won just over half of their faceoffs with a 50.5% total.

VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
RPI is 0-3 against nationally ranked opponents this season… the most recent contest in which Rensselaer took down a nationally ranked opponent was on November 7, 2015 in Houston Field House against #4 Clarkson (2-1 W).

CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOK
With Tomlinson's two assist game against #3 Clarkson, Tomlinson recorded her 43rd career assist against to pass Sierra Vadner '12 and Katie Woodward '04 into 18th in program history… Tomlinson needs nine more assists to break into the RPI top ten.
 
BREAK OUT THE BROOMS
The last time RPI swept Cornell and Clarkson was February 20-21, 2009 at home with 3-1 and 4-1 wins, respectively… if the Engineers manage to take three points this weekend, it will be the first time since October 30-31, 2015 with a 2-1 win at Cornell and 3-3 tie at Colgate… the last time Rensselaer split the series was last year on October 28-29, 2016 with a 1-0 win against the Big Red and a 4-1 loss to the Raiders… lastly, RPI has never come away with one point on the series.