Top-10 Battle Set to Open ECAC Playoffs for Tigers in Baker

Friday, February 28

Princeton, N.J.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

Quinnipiac

Tickets

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Top-10 Battle Set to Open ECAC Playoffs for Tigers in Baker

February 26, 2020 | Women's Ice Hockey

Princeton's women's hockey team finished the ECAC Hockey League regular season with the second seed and a No. 6 ranking in the nation.

The Tigers' reward? Opening the ECAC postseason against the seventh seed, which also happens to be the 10th-ranked team in the nation.

Princeton and Quinnipiac will play the first two games of the series Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m., all at Baker Rink. Should the teams split those two games, they'll meet again Sunday at 3 p.m. at Baker. The ECAC playoffs are a ticketed event, and tickets are available here.

Princeton will aim to make the ECAC semifinals for the third time in four years. Since the current playoff format began in 2002, Princeton has won the best-of-three quarterfinal series four times, in 2003, 2006, 2017 and 2019. Princeton will be hosting the quarterfinal series for the fourth time in five years (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020). This will be Princeton's 18th quarterfinal series in the 19 years of the current format - the only missed year was 2013 - and Princeton's series has gone the distance just four times, in 2008, 2016, 2017 and 2018, reaching three games in those years.

Princeton swept Quinnipiac in the two regular-season meetings, 4-2 in Baker on Oct. 29 and 3-2 at Quinnipiac on Jan. 28. Princeton got two goals and an assist from Sarah Fillier in the home game while Stephanie Neatby made 36 saves in the win. Annie MacDonald, Maggie Connors and Claire Thompson each had a goal in the road game while Rachel McQuigge made 23 saves to get the win.

Princeton has won the last four against Quinnipiac, sweeping the last two seasons. This will be the third time Princeton and Quinnipiac have met in the postseason. Princeton was swept in a first-round series from the Bobcats at Baker in 2011, was swept in a first-round series at Quinnipiac in 2015, and took the last two games after dropping the opener of a first-round series in Baker in 2017. That series win was the first time since 2006 that the Tigers advanced to the ECAC semifinals.

ECAC semifinal and final hosting duties will go to the highest seed remaining after the first round. If the seeds hold, Princeton will head to Cornell. The Big Red, Princeton, Clarkson and Harvard are the top four tournament seeds while Yale, Colgate, Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence are the bottom four.