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Kampersal Nets 200th Win As Women's Hockey Tops Colgate 3-1
February 06, 2009 | Women's Ice Hockey
While Jeff Kampersal may be happy to celebrate his 200th victory as the head coach of Princeton women's hockey, he is much happier to celebrate a crucial 3-1 victory over Colgate, especially because it moved the Tigers into fourth place in the ECAC standings with only five games remaining.
Colgate had led Princeton by one point in the league race coming into the night, but goals by Paula Romanchuk, Christine Foster and Heather Landry pushed the Tigers to a much-needed win. Princeton now has 22 points in the league, while both Colgate and Clarkson have 21. Fourth place is crucial in the ECAC because the top four teams at the end of the regular season host a quarterfinal series.
Princeton also wanted the win to clear any bad tastes left from last weekend's 2-1 overtime loss to Brown. The Tigers outshot the Bears 42-13 in that one, but many of those shots didn't challenge the Brown goaltender enough. Tonight's win was a different story, as the Tigers made an early effort to force Colgate goaltender Kimberly Sass to make a number of tough saves.
Princeton won the first round of the battle, scoring twice in the first 10 minutes of the game. Romanchuk scored from in front of the net off an assist from Sasha Sherry to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead at the 4:35 mark. Foster added a goal on the doorstep at the 9:14 mark to open a 2-0 lead. Colgate's Clancy Todd cut the deficit in half with a power-play goal with only 20 seconds remaining in the period.
That goal threatened to give the Raiders momentum, but Princeton was up to the challenge. The Tigers outshot Colgate 24-10 over the final two periods and got a late tally from Landry in the second period to give goaltender Kristen Young some insurance. While the senior goaltender needed to make only 18 saves, she made a pair of point-blank ones in the later minutes of the final period to save the win.
Young, as well as the rest of the Princeton Class of 2009, will be honored prior to Saturday's 4 p.m. home finale against Cornell.