HARTFORD, Conn. - The Trinity College women's ice hockey team, which finished the 2021-22 regular season with a 9-12-2 record and in seventh place in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with a 5-10-1 league mark, has qualified for the league championship tournament for the 15th time and will visit No. 2-seeded Colby College (15-4-1, 11-4-1) on Saturday, February 26 at 3 p.m. in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.  The Bantams, seeded No. 7 in the tournament for the first time since 2007, are seeking their seventh semifinal appearance and second conference title overall. Coached by Keith Maurice (7th Season), Trinity won the NESCAC Championship in 2015. The winner of the NESCAC Championship Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. No. 1-seeded Middlebury hosts either No. 8-seeded Wesleyan or No. 9-seeded Connecticut College, No. 3-seeded Amherst  hosts No. 6-seeded Bowdoin and No. 4-seeded Hamilton hosts No. 5-seeded Williams in the other quarterfinal games this weekend

Trinity features strong special teams and one of the best goaltenders in the NESCAC this winter.  Sophomore Hannah Leclair (Kensington, Prince Edward Island) averages nearly 30 saves per game with a 2.15 GAA and a .932 save percentage.  The Bantams are third in the league in power-play goals with 29 and fourth in penalty killing with opponents scoring less than 10 percent of the time with an extra skater.  Senior defenders Camille von Steinbergs (Minnetonka, Minn.), an All-NESCAC honoree in 2019, classmate Bergen Kobienia (Edina, Minn.) and junior Claudia Capone (Foxboro, Mass.) are veterans on the Bantam back line.  First-year forward Paige Kehoe (Manasquan, N.J.) leads Trinity in scoring with 10 points on two goals and a team-high eight assists, while senior captain Angelica Mushenko (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and rookie forward Martina Exnerova (Nelahozeves, Czechia) are tied for the team lead with seven goals apiece.  Junior forward Stephanie Nevers (West Suffield, Conn.) adds nine points on five goals and four helpers and senior forward Ellie Fellows (Westport, Mass.) has three goals and five assists for eight points.

Colby, coached by Holley Tyng (5th season), saw its six-game winning streak snapped on the regular season's final weekend with a tie and a loss to Amherst on February 19 and 20. The Mules lead the NESCAC on the power play with a .262 percentage, and have three of the league's top ten scorers by Lexi Cafiero (10g, 16a).  Nina Prunster has a 1.11 GAA and a .957 save percentage between the pipes for Colby.  The Mules swept the regular-season series, 7-0 and 2-1 (OT), on January 28 and 30, and the teams have never played before in the NESCAC Championship Tournament.