Princeton University Athletics
Women's Hockey Faces Tough Test this Weekend at St. Lawrence and Clarkson
February 03, 2006 | Women's Ice Hockey
Feb. 3, 2006
PRINCETON - The eighth-ranked Princeton women's hockey team travels to the North Country of New York to face the two teams it is currently tied with in second-place of the ECAC Hockey League standings. The trio sits a single point behind first-place Brown, all with a game in hand. Princeton has won three-straight games leading into the weekend and took three points from the two teams at home in November.
Fans can follow along with livestats from both games. Links can be found on the women's hockey schedule page of GoPrincetonTigers.com. Friday night's game begins at 7 p.m., while the puck will drop at 4 p.m., on Saturday.
The Tigers (12-5-4, 7-2-2 ECACHL) are ranked eighth in both national polls. Princeton climbed two spots in the ECACHL standings into a tie for second with a win on Tuesday night at Quinnipiac. The win gave Princeton 18 points, and moved the Tigers within a point of first-place Brown in the standings. Princeton is tied with St. Lawrence, ranked third in the nation, and Clarkson, ranked ninth nationally, in the league standings, and the trio has a two-point edge on fifth-place Harvard in the race for home ice in the playoffs. Brown visits Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend while Harvard hosts Brown and Yale.
Princeton extended its win streak to three games on Tuesday with its second shutout of the season. The Tigers also picked up the season sweep against its new travel partner, Quinnipiac. Princeton controlled the action from the get-go, outshooting the Bobcats 14-2 in the opening period and taking a 1-0 lead on freshman Annie Greenwood's team-leading 16th goal of the season. The score remained tight from there until Princeton added insurance on the power play at 7:20 of the third when junior Laura Watt scored on the power play. Junior Kate Hession added Princeton's third goal. Junior Kim Pearce had two assists to lift her team-leading point total to 30. Senior Roxanne Gaudiel made 16 saves for her ninth-career shutout. This weekend's games close out a seven-game stretch away from Baker Rink for the Tigers, who finish the season with four of six games at home. Next weekend Princeton hosts Harvard and Dartmouth. The following weekend the Tigers head to Union for two games before closing out the regular season at home against Brown and Yale.
Princeton is 21-14-2 all-time against St. Lawrence and is 13-5 in games play at Appleton Arena in Canton. The two teams tied 1-1 when they met earlier this season at Princeton. The tie ended a five-game Saint win streak in the series. In that game Gaudiel made 30 saves and Pearce scored the game-tying goal with four minutes remaining in regulation as Princeton forged a 1-1 deadlock with the then top-ranked team in the nation.
St. Lawrence is 20-3-2 overall this season and is 8-2-2 in the ECAC Hockey League. The Saints enter the weekend following a sweep at Niagara last weekend. The weekend before that, St. Lawrence split a league weekend, defeating Cornell, but losing to Colgate. St. Lawrence also has losses to St. Cloud and Clarkson this season and has tied Harvard and Princeton.
Princeton is a perfect 5-0-0 all-time against Clarkson but has played several close games, including a pair of one-goal wins in the last two meetings. Princeton is 2-0-0 when on the road in the series. When the teams met in November, Watt gave the Tigers a lead on the power play in the second period. Pearce made the score 2-0 a minute into the third period with what stood as the game winner as Clarkson scored with less than a five minutes remaining to make the score 2-1. Gaudiel made 20 saves in the win.
Clarkson is 18-7-1 overall and 9-3-0 in the ECACHL. Clarkson enters the weekend winners of four straight, dating back to a 1-0 loss to Brown in mid-January. The Golden Knights have wins against Yale, Colgate, Cornell and Rensselaer in the time since.
Princeton returns home next weekend to host Harvard and Dartmouth.