Women's hockey: Bye week for half the top 10

Teams are ranked by Simple Rating System (SRS), with the CIS ranking in parentheses.

Our Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 10 are all idle in conference play this week, leaving Guelph @ Laurier as one of the few games to watch. And it didn't disappoint.

1. Alberta (3): No games scheduled.

2. McGill (1): As an anonymous comment below points out (thanks for the catch), the Martlets barnstormed (rinkstormed?) through the Maritimes this weekend, outscoring their opponents 22-2 (including 4-0 over the X-Women and 7-2 over Dalhousie, outshooting Dal 42-14). Three more wins in a row for McGill would make 67, tying the all-time record for consecutive wins against CIS opponents.

3. Laurier (2): Saturday night, they beat Guelph 3-2 in a great game between two very good teams. The Hawks had some trouble pressuring Guelph in the first, and gave up the first goal when a few players crashed the net and put home the first or second rebound. But after outshooting the Gryphs just 8-5 in the first, Laurier got 14 in the third to Guelph's 4, and gradually turned it on, scoring at 6:21 and 9:04. Katherine Shirriff scored twice: the 6:21 goal just mentioned as well as a penalty shot in the second that came on a not-really-necessary trip on what was not really a breakaway. She also got into it with Erin Small late in the third, the two of them being quite nasty to the other after a spear, some shoving, and a scrum; this was then followed by incessant verbal abuse all the way to the penalty box (and for a few minutes after, through the glass). Overall, an exciting game, and it's too bad it was seen by only me and 131 others. Sunday night, they outshot Brock 38-11 (no, really: 38-11) and won 4-0, giving the shutout to Kristen Kilgallen in what appears to be her CIS debut, as she spells Liz Knox for a night.

4. St. F-X (5): See McGill, above.

5. Moncton (6): at UPEI Saturday, at home to Mount Allison Sunday. First game vs. the Panthers was a 6-2 win, the Aigles Bleues scoring twice in every period. Mariève Provost scored twice (and had two assists) for her fourth multi-goal performance in just eight games (granted, against some weak competition--only one of her 11 goals is against a top-10 team). Second game was closer (beating Mount A 2-1); Provost scored the first and assisted, powerplay-ically, on the second.

6. Queen's (7): At Windsor and Western, whom they split with at home three weeks ago, knocking off the Lancers 5-1. This time, it was 3-1 for the Golden Gaels over the Lancers, Becky Conroy having a hand in all three goals to nobody's surprise (assist, goal, powerplay goal). Funny how things work: this game had many more penalties than Laurier-Guelph, but I'd bet it was nowhere near as chippy. And the Gaels won 5-1 again, but against Western this time: four in the second put that one away. Two goals and an assist from Kelly Thomson, four points from Elizabeth Kench.

7. Dalhousie (12): See McGill, above.

8. Saskatchewan (10): No games scheduled. Is this the bye week for half the league or something?

9. Toronto (NR): One game, at home against York, which they lost 5-1. That'll get you out of the top 10 pretty quickly, no? York scored at 18:57 and 19:18 of the second to go up 4-0, and Melissa Muir took a seat on the bench for the third. Two powerplay goals from Mandy Cole gave York a 2-0 lead about halfway through the game and U of T couldn't respond, despite outshooting York 49 to 30. The telling sequence, it seems, came in the first: York penalties at 6:55 and 8:47 gave the Blues basically four minutes of 5-on-4, but at 10:25 they were called for slashing, then 11:18 for tripping, and Cole scored the first goal of the game 12 seconds later.

10. Montreal (8): No games scheduled. I think.

Our new top 10 (counting the non-conference results from the weekend): McGill, Alberta, Laurier, St. F-X, Queen's, Moncton, Dalhousie, York, Saskatchewan, Montreal. The only change is York in for Toronto, which isn't surprising after their 5-1 win.
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3 comments:

  1. McGill did play an eastern swing this weekend and beat Dal (7-2), StofX (4-0) and Saint Mary's (11-0). I would think beating two Top 10 teams easily while extending their unbeaten streak vs. CIS opponents to 64 is worth consideration for #1 status.

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  2. Alberta plays Calgary in a home-and-home series this weekend

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  3. So they do, and that will be noted in this week's top 10 tracker, not last week's. Notice how most of this post is written in the past tense? That's a hint that we're talking about the past.

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