Princeton University Athletics
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Women's Hockey Travels North Looking to Gain Ground in ECACHL Standings
February 08, 2007 | Women's Ice Hockey
The Princeton women's hockey team takes a swing up to the North Country this weekend for important ECAC Hockey League contests. The Tigers visit Clarkson on Saturday at 3 p.m. and fourth-ranked St. Lawrence on Sunday at 2 p.m., looking to gain ground on fourth place and home-ice advantage for the playoffs. The Tigers currently own an 11-6-1 record in the ECACHL, good for fifth place in league standings and two points behind Colgate.
St. Lawrence sits in third, one point behind Harvard, while Clarkson is currently in eighth. Colgate sits in fourth with a two-point advantage over Princeton, but has a tough schedule this weekend with first-place Dartmouth and second-place Harvard on the slate. The Raiders visit Baker Rink in a key match-up on Friday, February 16.
Last Weekend
The Tigers are coming off of a 1-1 weekend, as they dominated Brown 4-1 on Friday but dropped a 6-3 decision to Yale the next day. After cleaning out the rust from the exam break in the first 10 minutes of action, the Tigers dominated the Bears for the remainder of the game. Senior Dina McCumber broke open the scoring for Princeton with 5:10 to go in the first period on a feed from junior Lizzie Keady and senior Laura Watt found classmate Kim Pearce for the eventual game winner less than a minute later. Two second-period goals gave the Tigers a 4-0 advantage. The Bears broke up sophomore Kristen Young's shutout bid with a goal late in the third period.
Freshman Stephanie Denino scored her second career goal in as many outings on Saturday, but the Yale Bulldogs were relentless as they took the game 6-3. The Tigers rallied twice from deficits, but could not rally in the third period when the Bulldogs netted two unanswered goals.
Denino's goal came only 14 seconds after Yale got on the board on a Kristin Savard goal in the first period. Yale's Regan Gilbride made the score 2-1 in favor of the Bulldogs, and Christina Sharun put the Bulldogs up 3-1 only 23 seconds later. Sophomore Annie Greenwood cut the Tigers' deficit to 3-2 by the end of the first period, and Pearce tied it at three apiece 29 seconds into the second period off her own rebound.
The Bulldogs went up 4-3 less than two minutes later, and Denise Soesilo netted both third period goals en route to the final 6-3 score.
Princeton Stats
Pearce leads the Tigers in scoring with 28 points on 12 goals and 16 assists. This puts her in a five-way tie for 13th in the ECACHL scoring race. Pearce netted two goals and assisted on two others last weekend. Junior Marykate Oakley has accumulated 24 points on 13 goals and 11 assists for the Tigers this season.
Freshman Stephanie Denino has gotten into the scoring action lately, netting the first two goals of her young career last weekend.
Princeton at Clarkson
The first leg of this weekend's trip takes the Tigers to Potsdam, N.Y., for a match-up with eighth-place Clarkson (15-12-3 overall, 7-9-2 ECACHL). The Golden Knights hold a five-point advantage over Quinnipiac in the league standings, and look to clinch the eighth and final spot in the playoffs. Princeton played Clarkson to a 1-1 tie back on Oct. 28 in a defensive struggle. Clarkson's Ashley Shaidle scored the lone goal for her team, while Pearce converted on a power play to tie the game.
Princeton is 6-0-1 all-time against Clarkson. The Tigers won the first six meetings between the two before tying earlier this season. Princeton is 3-0-0 in games played at Clarkson's Cheel Arena.
Clarkson is coming off of a three-point weekend, as it tied Cornell 1-1 on Friday and beat Colgate 1-0 on Saturday. Two Golden Knights to watch are Genevieve Lavoie and Britney Selina. Lavoie leads Clarkson and is seventh in ECAC scoring, with 31 points on 20 goals and 11 assists in her rookie season. Selina is second on the team with 24 points on 11 goals and 13 assists, also in her first collegiate season.
Princeton at St. Lawrence
The Tigers finish up their weekend near the Canadian border as they visit St. Lawrence for a 2 p.m. contest on Sunday. The Saints (22-6-2 overall, 14-4 ECACHL) are in third place with 28 points, one point behind second-place Harvard. Princeton took the first meeting of the teams, 6-5, back on Oct. 29 at Baker Rink, propelled by a wild first period that saw the Tigers go up 4-2. Oakley scored twice in a two-minute span to go along with goals from Greenwood and junior Brittany Salmon in that four-goal opening period. The Saints made a run at it in the third period by netting two unanswered goals, but Young came up big late, stopping 46 saves in that contest.
Princeton leads its all-time series with St. Lawrence 22-15-2 following its win in October. The Tigers win snapped a seven-game winless streak against the Saints. Princeton is 13-6-0 at St. Lawrence's Appleton Arena, but is winless in its last three games in Canton.
St. Lawrence currently boasts the ECAC's leading scorer–Sabrina Harbec–as well as three other players listed in the ECAC top 10 scoring. Carson Duggan and Alison Domenico are in a three-way tie for seventh with Clarkson's Lavoie. Harbec has 51 points on 21 goals and 30 assists.
The Saints ran over their opponents last weekend, as they shut out Colgate 4-0 on Friday and bested Cornell 7-2 on Saturday.
Coming Up Soon…
Colgate and Cornell visit Hobey Baker Rink next Friday and Saturday for the final ECACHL regular-season weekend. The Tigers take on the Raiders on Friday at 7 p.m., and the Big Red on Saturday at 4 p.m. The first round of the ECAC playoffs starts the following Friday.