Princeton University Athletics
Sixth-Ranked Princeton Closes Regular Season With Brown and Yale
February 23, 2006 | Women's Ice Hockey
Feb. 23, 2006
PRINCETON - The sixth-ranked Princeton women's hockey team wraps up the 2005-06 regular season with home games this weekend against Brown and Yale. Princeton has already secured its best ever ECAC Hockey League finish and with three points, the Tigers can earn their sixth Ivy League championship in women's hockey.
Fans can follow along with livestats for both games. Links to the Gametrackers can be found on the women's hockey schedule page. Additionally, Friday night's game against Brown is part of the USCHO.com game of the week package and will be broadcast. A link to the broadcast can also be found on women's hockey schedule page.
The Tigers (17-6-4, 13-3-2 ECACHL) are now sixth in both the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. The Tigers swept Union last weekend to run its win streak to five games. Princeton has outscored its opponents 25-4 during the win streak and has shutouts at Clarkson and Union in the stretch.
Princeton started last weekend with a 5-0 shutout at Union. Four Tigers - senior Sarah Butsch, freshman Annie Greenwood, sophomore Marykate Oakley and junior Kim Pearce - recorded a goal and assist in the game and freshman goaltender Kristen Young made 16 saves for her first career shutout.
The following day senior Heather Jackson led the charge with a goal and three assists in a 6-1 Princeton win. Greenwood had two goals and an assist in the game and junior Laura Watt added two assists. Senior netminer Roxanne Gaudiel made 18 saves for the win. Both Greenwood and Jackson were named to the ECACHL Honor Roll after their five-point weekends. Greenwood, by scoring in both games, extended her goal-scoring streak to eight games.
By earning four points last weekend at Union, Princeton assured itself of at least a second-place ECACHL finish. Princeton can still finish first in the standings but would need to gain three points on St. Lawrence in the final weekend of play. St. Lawrence faces Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend. Princeton, in second, sits four points ahead of third-place Clarkson.
Princeton can face one of four opponents when the ECACHL playoffs begin next weekend. The Tigers will definitely be playing at Baker Rink and can host Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale or Colgate in the opening round.
On the line this weekend is the Ivy League title, which is made up of the ECACHL games played between Ivy League teams. Princeton has won five titles since the league started awarding one in 1976. Princeton last won a title in 1995 when it shared it with Dartmouth. Princeton's last outright title came in 1992. Princeton is currently tied for second in the Ivy standings with Brown at 11 points. Yale is a point up on both with 12. The Princeton-Brown and Princeton-Yale games are the only ones remaining, so Princeton finds itself a point back with an extra game to play.
The teams that Princeton faces this weekend and is battling for an Ivy title with are the only league travel-partners to hold Princeton winless in a league weekend this season. In early January, Princeton made the trip to Yale and Brown, and skated to a 5-5 tie at Yale and fell 4-3 at Brown.
Princeton is 26-26-1 all-time against Brown and is 12-11-0 all-time at Baker Rink. Princeton swept both meetings with Brown last season, but fell 4-3 in Providence on Jan. 7. In that game, Princeton had a 1-0 lead, and then fell behind 3-1, before tying it 3-3 at the end of two periods, but Brown's Keaton Zucker scored 51 seconds into the third for a 4-3 win. Four Tigers scored in the loss, and junior Dina McCumber led all point-scorers with two assists in a game where Princeton outshot Brown 45-31.
The Tigers are 45-8-2 all-time against Yale and are 24-4-0 on home ice in the series. Despite the lopsided history, Yale is 4-0-1 in the last five games between the two. That includes a 5-5 tie on Jan. 6 where Princeton led early and Yale led late before finishing tied. Princeton led 2-0 after one period, but the game was tied a 3-3 through two periods. In the third, Yale went ahead 4-3 and then 5-4, but Watt's goal with 4:29 remaining forced the deadlock. Wall and Oakley each had a goal and assist in the game to lead Princeton.
Princeton will be back in action at home next weekend for its best-of-three ECACHL quarterfinal series. For updated times and opponent information, be sure to check GoPrincetonTigers.com.