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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Harvard
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Players Mentioned
Butler, Weber Power Women's Hockey To Shutout Of Top-10 Rival
January 07, 2012 | Women's Ice Hockey
If the Princeton women's hockey team was looking for the ideal way to open 2012, it found it Friday night against the 10th-ranked Harvard Crimson. Two goals by Sally Butler and a 20-save shutout for Rachel Weber helped Princeton to a 3-0 victory at Baker Rink.
Princeton, which temporarily thought it had lost its shutout less than a minute into the game, outshot Harvard 26-20 and earned a 26-21 faceoff win. Paula Romanchuk won 13 faceoffs on her own in only 16 attempts.
Harvard nearly took a 1-0 before the fans had taken their seats. After taking the opening faceoff into the Princeton end, Kalley Armstrong centered a pass that went off the foot of Kaitlin Spurling and surprised everybody, Spurling included, when it ended up in the back of the net. The referees reviewed the play, which came 49 seconds into the period, and disallowed the goal.
The Crimson controlled play for the next couple of minutes, but Princeton did a nice job of tilting the ice back in its own favor. A power play midway through the period didn't end with a goal, but it did allow Princeton to assert its control of play, and that would be rewarded later in the period.
With less than two minutes remaining, Heather Landry fired a shot that was saved by Laura Bellamy, but not controlled. Sally Butler took advantage, knocking in the rebound for her tenth goal of the season.
Neither team scored in the middle period, but Princeton was able to keep Harvard off balance and limit its high-scoring offense to seven shots. Harvard had two power plays in the period, but the Tiger defense kept the Crimson from any point-blank shots on Weber. The best opportunity on either advantage came from Princeton junior Kelly Cooke, who used some fancy stickwork on the latter power play to get in one-on-one against Bellamy. The Harvard goaltender made the play, but Princeton took precious seconds off its kill with the possession.
Butler took advantage of another deep offensive possession for her 11th goal of the season early in the third. After Landry fired a shot that was saved by Bellamy, Butler beat her Harvard rival to the puck to fire in the key second goal of the game. The Princeton defense stayed strong, and it got some help from five Harvard penalties in the final period.
An interference call against Spurling would result in an insurance goal for the Tigers, who improved to 7-9-3 with the win and 6-6-1 in the ECAC. Danielle DiCesare tipped a shot from Ali Pankowski for her fourth goal of the season. Princeton spent the final six minutes doing everything it could on both ends of the ice to assure a shutout for Weber.
Princeton will look for the weekend sweep Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Dartmouth Big Green. The popular "Skate With The Tigers" will follow the game, and admission is free.