It will be more than just a hockey game tonight at Ingalls Rink as the women’s hockey team takes on Princeton; the second annual White Out for Mandi will be the first major fundraising event for the Mandi Schwartz Foundation.
At 6:45 pm, a ceremony honoring former team member Mandi Schwartz ’12 will take place, prior to puck-drop at 7 p.m. Admission will not be charged; instead, fans are asked to donate to the foundation at the door. The team’s goal is to pack the Whale with everyone wearing white to show support for the foundation, and at lunch in Commons it will sell special T-shirts for the event.
“We scheduled the game this Friday because there are no other Yale athletic events that day,” team captain Aleca Hughes ’12 said. “We want to get as many people out as possible.”
The women’s ice hockey teams from Pricenton, Dartmouth, Middlebury and Northeastern, as well as the men’s ice hockey team at St. Lawrence and the women’s lacrosse team at Dartmouth have lined up donations for the event. The Bulldogs will also be auctioning items at the White Out including New York Rangers tickets and an NHL hat sighed by Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
This weekend will be the Bulldogs’ (1-12-0, 1-5-0 ECAC) seventh and eighth conference games of the year. After they face the Tigers (4-7-1, 3-4-1 ECAC ) Friday night, they are up against Quinnipiac (9-7-1, 5-2-1 ECAC) on Saturday afternoon at 4 pm. The team hopes to continue its offensive and defensive momentum from the Nutmeg Classic tournament last weekend, during which the Bulldogs allowed the fewest goals of the season all while keeping shots on goal nearly on par with their opponents. Princeton is on a six-game losing streak, but the Bobcats are going into Saturday’s game as the Nutmeg Classic champions for the second year in a row, having beat Robert Morris and UConn last weekend.
“Ultimately, we want to push the foundation and be more competitive as a team,” head coach Joakim Flygh said. “Hopefully we see that this weekend.” He added that there has been great energy on the team this week in preparation for Friday’s big game.
The Mandi Schwartz foundation, started by Hughes, strives to support youth hockey players who suffer from cancer. The team has unofficially “adopted” a younger teammate, 10-year old cancer survivor Giana Cardonita, who will drop the puck on Friday’s game.