TROY, N.Y. – Senior netminder Sonja van der Bliek turned aside all 25 shots she faced as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team defeated Quinnipiac University, 2-0 in ECAC Hockey action on Saturday. With the win, the Engineers move to 3-6-2 on the season and 2-2-0 in league play.  The Bobcats are now 7-4-1 overall and 2-3-0 in ECAC Hockey.

The shutout marked the first of the season for van der Bliek (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros), who stopped nine shots in both the first and the third periods, while turning aside seven in the middle stanza.

After a scoreless first period, RPI broke out onto the scoreboard as sophomore right winger Clare Padmore (Toronto, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) converted off a rebound at 16:15 of the middle stanza. Classmate Kristen Jakubowski (Lake Placid, NY/The Northwood School) earned the primary assist after her quick shot from the mid-slot hit Victoria Vigilante (Woodbridge, ON/Mississauga, Jr. Chiefs) and banked out to Padmore, who buried it into the open net.

The Engineers held strong to the 1-0 advantage through the end of the period, but were forced to defend their own zone at the start of the final stanza. Quinnipiac came out firing with a number of shots through the first ten minutes. Rookie Amanda Colin (Burnsville, MN/Burnsville) had a point blank shot at the RPI net just three minutes in, but was denied by the Engineers netminder, who took it off the chest.

Sophomore Brittany Lyons (Canton, MA/Assabet Valley) also had a great chance around the 10 minute mark as she backhanded a shot on the fly at the RPI net. Out of position, van der Bliek slid to her right and made the save off her left shoulder to preserve the advantage.

Rensselaer had its chances as well, nearly pushing the score to 2-0 with just under six minutes remaining as a scramble in front of the Bobcats net had a clash of sticks looking for control. The puck slid loose to the top of the goal mouth were junior blueline Katie Daniels (Rockton, IL/Chicago Mission) found it, but Vigilante made an outstanding save blocker save to force the play toward the boards.

Facing a deficit in the final minute, the Bobcats decided to pull Vigilante in favor of the extra-attacker, but the Engineers capitalized. Stealing the puck off the stick of a Quinnipiac player, freshman Jordan Smelker (Anchorage, AK/Team Alaska U-19) chipped the puck up to junior Alisa Harrison (Vienna, VA/Washington Pride) and beat several defenders for the empty net tally with 32 seconds left.

In the Bobcats goal, Vigilante stopped 24 shots, including seven in the first, eight in the second and nine in the final stanza.

The Engineers return to the ice next weekend, traveling to Yale and Brown on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (4pm). Quinnipiac returns home to host Harvard and Dartmouth, also on Friday (7pm) and Saturday (4pm).