Women’s Hockey Game of the Week: No. 2 Yale vs No. 4 Colgate

Story posted February 9, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Joshua Bartosik

Two of the premier women’s college hockey programs will hit the ice in Hamilton as No. 2 Yale travels to take on No. 4 Colgate.

The Yale Bulldogs are one of the hottest teams in the nation, winning 16 in a row. Their last and only loss on the season came against the same team they will be playing this weekend.

Yale doesn’t have any one particular player that stands out, it has several. Nine players for the Bulldogs are in double-digit for points, six of which have at least 20 points.

The elite depth on the squad is one of the main reasons they score at nearly a four-goal clip per game. The elite goaltending takes care of the rest, limiting opponents to just 1.2 goals per game.

Sophomore netminder Pia Dukaric has been one of the nation’s best goalies, if not the best. The Slovenia native has a 1.14 goals against average and a .949 save percentage while also amassing seven shutouts on the year.

The Bulldogs have just one kryptonite, and that’s their power play. The woman advantage has struggled all season long, hovering around the 19 percent mark. Despite the inability to score on the power play, the penalty kill is the second best in the nation at 91.9 percent.

The blue and white will be going up against a team with a top-10 power play in the Colgate Raiders. The Raiders score at a 23 percent rate on the woman advantage, and will look to capitalize on that in this series.

The maroon and gray are riding a five-game win streak itself and are loaded with some of the best scorers in the nation.

Leading that charge is Danielle Serdachny, whose 35 assists and 53 points are both best in the nation.

The senior forward is followed by Kristyna Kaltounkova and Kaitlyn O’Donohoe, who have 43 and 33 points respectively on the campaign.

While Yale has scoring wealth around the board, the Raiders have seemingly more of it. 13 players in the maroon and gray have double-digit points, and seven of them have at least 20.

This series has massive implications not just for the national rankings, but also the ECAC rankings. Yale holds a slight five-point lead over Colgate in the standings with 49.5 points on the season, but a Colgate win could shift the tides in the conference.

These teams have only played each other once this season, resulting in a 5-3 win for the Raiders. With so much on the line in this matchup, it’s anyone's guess as to who comes out on top in this one.

Joshua Bartosik is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jsb6137@psu.edu.