W. Hockey Faces St. Lawrence in ECAC Semifinal Tomorrow

It is do or die time for four of the top five teams in women's college hockey.

No. 1 Dartmouth (24-3-1), No. 3 Harvard (22-8-0), No. 4 St. Lawrence (23-6-3) and No. 5 Brown (19-6-3) will faceoff tomorrow and Sunday for the ECAC title and bids to next week's Frozen Four finals in Minnesota.

Although there are no automatic bids to the inaugural NCAA women's hockey tournament, No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth (26-5-4) should be guaranteed an invite after winning the WHCA title.

Dartmouth, after holding down the No. 1 position in the national polls all season, is also a safe bet to receive one of the four spots when the selection committee announces the finalists Sunday, regardless of the outcome in the ECAC tournament.

That leaves Harvard, St. Lawrence, Brown and No. 6 Minnesota (23-9-2) fighting for the last two spots.

"We're not trying to think about the selection committee right now," said senior defenseman Tara Dunn. "We just want to try to win Saturday, and if we keep winning, things will take care of themselves."

Minnesota has already played its final game unless it receives an invite to the Frozen Four. The Gophers lost to No. 8 Ohio State, 4-0, in the WHCA semifinals and then fell to No. 7 Wisconsin in the consolation final, possibly finishing its season on a three-game losing streak.

Harvard, St. Lawrence and Brown, on the other hand, still appear to be in control of their own destiny. Brown faces Dartmouth in the early semifinal at 4 p.m. tomorrow, while Harvard skates against St. Lawrence in the late game at 7 p.m. in Hanover, NH.

"The team is really positive right now," Dunn said. "We've had a great week of practice and we're obviously very excited. It's our March Madness."

St. Lawrence and Harvard split the season series with the Crimson taking the first meeting, 2-1, and the Saints roaring back in the second encounter, 3-2.

In the last meeting in early January, Harvard outshot St. Lawrence 35-21 and held a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

The Crimson lost only twice all season when leading heading into the third period.

St. Lawrence finished the season on a six-game winning streak and as winners of nine of its last 10. A big part of the Saints' recent success has been the play of freshman goaltender Rachel Barrie, who was named Second Team All-ECAC yesterday as well as ECAC Rookie of the Year.

"They have a really good goaltender and we need to get a lot of shots on net," Dunn said. "We've been looking at video from our last game against St. Lawrence, and if we minimize the mistakes in our own zone, we should be able to capitalize on their mistakes."

In an ECAC quarterfinal last Saturday, Barrie recorded 34 saves to shutout UNH, 1-0. She is 14-3-2 with a 1.77 GAA in 20 games this season.

Tomorrow, however, she will face stiffer competition.

Harvard's top-line of junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill, senior winger Tammy Shewchuk and sophomore winger Kalen Ingram is the most prolific in the country.

On Monday, Botterill and Shewchuk were named two of the three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which recognizes the most outstanding player in women's college hockey.

With 63 goals and 76 assists between the two, it is not difficult to see why.

Even if the Saints can shut one of them down, the other one will come back and make them pay. No. 10 Providence was able to keep Botterill out of the back of the net last weekend, but Shewchuk made sure the Friars paid, netting a hat trick in a 4-3 overtime victory.

The duo is also approaching a pair of personal milestones this weekend. Botterill is riding a 77-point scoring streak and is set to tie the all-time NCAA record tomorrow. If Harvard reaches the finals, she could break the record Sunday.

Shewchuk, already Harvard's all-time leading scorer, is only three points away from three hundred in her career with 148 goals and 149 assists.

Botterill was named ECAC Player of the Year yesterday, while both Shewchuk and Botterill were named First Team All-ECAC.

The hidden gem on the line could be Ingram, who has 18 goals and 21 assists on the season. With those numbers, she could be top scorer on a number of other teams, and if Botterill and Shewchuk play to their potential, it will leave Ingram open with plenty of opportunities to bury the puck.

Her goals are not always the prettiest, but she has scored a couple of big ones in her young career, none bigger than last Saturday when she scored the overtime winner against Providence to keep the Crimson's season alive. She also scored the equalizer with seven seconds remaining in regulation that sent last year's ECAC semifinal to overtime against Dartmouth.

This weekend, if Dartmouth defeats Brown, the winner of the St. Lawrence-Harvard showdown will likely be given a bid to the Frozen Four. The loser may still have chance, and the decision will likely come down to a comparison with Minnesota to determine who receives the final invitation.

If Brown defeats Dartmouth, however, the situation becomes more complicated, and Harvard might need to win the entire tournament in that case to assure itself of a bid.

"No matter who we play in the finals Sunday it will be exciting," Dunn said. "If it's Dartmouth they will obviously have the home-ice advantage, but beating them would make winning the championship just a little more satisfying."

In any case, the Crimson will be playing to win all weekend, unwilling to leave its fate in the hands of the selection committee that denied it a chance to defend its national championship last year after falling to Dartmouth in the ECAC semifinal.

"After losing like that last year, we don't want the same thing to happen again," Dunn said. "Especially for the seniors, we plan to come out on the other end of that this year."