WOMEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
The 2016 calendar year as well as the non-conference schedule come to an end this weekend for the Vermont women's hockey team as the Catamounts welcome Yale to Burlington and Gutterson Fieldhouse. Both teams will take the ice on Friday (Dec. 30) for a 2 p.m. tilt, then celebrate New Year's Eve with a noon matinee on Saturday (Dec. 31). UVM heads into the series undefeated in eight of its last 10 games.
 
Fans away for the holidays can watch from afar through free streaming video in high definition via CatamounTV.com, with Rob Ryan holding down play-by-play. Live stats will also be provided through SIDEARM Stats.
 
RELATED LINKS
Video | Live Stats | Tickets
 
GAMEDAY PROMOTIONS
FRIDAY
Grand Isle County Day: All residents of Grand Isle County are invited to the game at a discounted rate of $2.
 
SATURDAY
Discount Men's Ticket: Purchase a ticket to Saturday's women's hockey game and follow up that matinee with a $10 ticket to the men's rendezvous with Bentley, which begins at 4 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
 
ALUMNAE WEEKEND SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY 3-4
All women's hockey alumnae are invited to save the date for Alumnae Weekend, taking place Feb. 3-4, 2017 around Pack the Gut presented by The Windjammer. Details will be announced shortly. To ensure that you receive updates on this and other alumnae events, please contact the Victory Club office via phone at (802) 656-0956 or email at Victory.Club@uvm.edu with your updated contact information.
 
CATAMOUNTS RECAP
Friday's matchup with Yale will mark Vermont's first action since picking up a 4-2 win over Dartmouth at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Dec. 10. UVM's first ever home win over the Big Green included a 4-for-8 day on the power play as the Catamounts never trailed. Freshman Sydney Scobee also kicked out 14 pucks to record her first collegiate win, while three Catamounts (Rachael Ade, Ali O'Leary, Ève-Audrey Picard) turned in multi-point afternoons.
 
Vermont closed the fall semester above .500 for the first time since 2013-14, when the team posted an 8-7-1 start en route to a program-best 18 wins and a trip to the Hockey East Semifinals.
 
SCOUTING YALE
The Bulldogs (4-7-2, 2-5-1 ECAC) sit seventh among the ECAC, most recently being handed a 5-3 defeat against New Hampshire on Dec. 10. Yale's top line combined for four points courtesy of Phoebe Staenz (2g) and Eden Murray (2a) but the Wildcats exploded for three first-period goals and never looked back, sealing the win in the second period with two goals in 1:14.
 
Senior Krista Yip-Chuck (6-12-18) sits atop the Bulldogs statistically while Staenz and Murray have compiled 17 points apiece thus far on the season. In addition, Murray is riding a four-game streak of at least one point and has inked the scoresheet in nine of her last 10 contests. Time between the pipes has mostly been split between senior Hanna Mandl (2-1-0, 2.52 GAA) and Tera Hoffman (2-4-2, 2.69 GAA).
 
This is year number seven at Yale for head coach Joakim Flygh, who arrived in New Haven, Connecticut following nine total seasons as an assistant at Harvard and Minnesota-Duluth. During that time period, his teams made five NCAA Tournament appearances including a Frozen Four runner-up performance by Harvard in 2007.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
Historically Yale has had the Catamounts' number, taking all but two of the 12 meetings between the sides. However, Vermont came away with a win and a draw in the most recent pair which was staged in Burlington over the weekend of Oct. 22-23, 2010. The victory in the opener was marked in part by a tremendous performance by UVM's seniors as four members of the class found the back of the net in the 4-1 decision.
 
As former ECAC rivals, UVM and Yale crossed paths each year from 2000-01 through 2004-05 before taking a four-year recess when the Catamounts moved to Hockey East.
 
PRETTY SPECIAL IF YOU ASK US
Vermont has enjoyed recent success on special teams, particularly with its penalty killing unit. Catamount opponents have netted just seven goals on 65 power play opportunities, putting UVM at 89.9 percent on the kill and ranking ninth nationally. The Green and Gold last surrendered a power play goal on Nov. 20 against Connecticut, constructing a perfect stretch of 350 minutes, 50 seconds of game time and 18 kills since then.
 
The win over Dartmouth on Dec. 10 also saw the Catamounts light the lamp four times on the power play for the first time since Nov. 7, 2009. On that afternoon, UVM logged a 5-1 victory at Boston College.
 
GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!
Vermont received a vote in the most recent USCHO Division I Women's Poll, announced on Dec. 12. It is the fourth time in program history that the Catamounts have been featured and first time in back-to-back polls.
 
UVM previously received a vote in the poll during the weeks of Nov. 3, 2014 and Oct. 26, 2009. The former came in the aftermath of the Green and Gold's best start in program history (6-2-1), while the Catamounts first were mentioned shortly after upsetting No. 4 Clarkson at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Oct. 17, 2009.
 
WE'RE PULLING RANK ON THIS ONE
Vermont's result at Northeastern (Dec. 4) locked up the Catamounts' third win of 2016-17 against a ranked opponent, the first time in program history that UVM has reached that mark. In addition to sweeping the Huskies that weekend, Vermont knocked off then-No. 9 Boston University on Oct. 9 at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
 
The team last pulled off two ranked wins during the 2014-15 campaign, upsetting No. 7 North Dakota on the road to open the season and later topping sixth-ranked BU.
 
NEXT UP
UVM faces a quick turnaround following the Yale series as the Catamounts drop the puck on 2017 at Merrimack on Tuesday, Jan. 3. Opening draw is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Lawler Rink.
 
The Windjammer and Upper Deck Pub is the presenting sponsor of the 2016-17 women's hockey season