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No. 3 W. Hockey Faces Tall Order in NCAA's Frozen Four

No other Saint player has cracked the top 15 in points.

The Saints do, however, have a star freshman goalie to rival Harvard's Ruddock. St. Lawrence freshman goalie Rachel Barrie was this year's ECAC Rookie of the Year, posting impressive numbers for her first year. Her 2.03 goals against average equals Ruddock's mark, while her .928 saves percentage is 11 points better.

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Still, St. Lawrence has not had much success against the rest of the teams in the tourney. The Saints are 1-4-1 against the rest of the tournament field this year.

St. Lawrence has been wholly unsuccessful in its attempts to beat Dartmouth this year. And even if the Saints should miraculously slay the mighty Big Green, they would have to play either Minnesota-Duluth--whom they lost to twice this year, 7-0 and 4-3--or Harvard, to whom they fell, 7-1, a week and a half ago in the ECAC tournament.

In the regular season, the Saints split their series with the Crimson. St. Lawrence's 2-1 win over Harvard was its only victory against any of the other three tourney teams this year.

To say the least, the Crimson faces a steep challenge this week in its attempt to win the first-ever NCAA women's hockey championship and its second national title in three years. Harvard needs to maintain strong defense and will most likely need multi-goal games from its two best players, senior Tammy Shewchuk and junior Jennifer Botterill.

The pair is among the three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which is given to the best player in women's hockey. The winner will be announced this weekend.

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