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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Northeastern
Northeastern, Cornell Ahead in Top-15 Matchups in Smashville Showcase
November 22, 2022 | Women's Ice Hockey
The Smashville Showcase will host No. 14/14 Princeton, No. 8/8 Northeastern and No. 9/9 Cornell this weekend for three total games at the Ford Ice Center in the Bellevue section of Nashville. The event is hosted by the Nashville Predators at the team's training facility.
vs. #8/8 Northeastern, Friday, 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT | Live Video | Live Stats | Tickets
vs. #9/9 Cornell, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT | Live Video |Â Tickets
Additional coverage links will be added as available
Tested from the Start: Half of ECAC Hockey is in the DCU/USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings, with #4/4 Quinnipiac, #5/5 Yale, #6/6 Colgate, #9/9 Cornell, #10/10 Clarkson and #14/14 Princeton. The Tigers have already faced three of those other four of the other five teams and will have their first ranked non-conference opponent this weekend in #8/8 Northeastern in addition to a second game with Cornell, which will be non-conference. Â
The Series with Northeastern and Cornell: Northeastern leads the all-time series 28-12-2 overall. This will be the third time the teams will meet on neutral ice after games in 1982 and 1984, which were split. Northeastern swept a two-game series at Baker Rink last season in the teams' first meeting since 2011, though Princeton was set to go to Northeastern for the NCAA quarterfinals in 2020 before the tournament was canceled due to the pandemic. Princeton leads the all-time series with Cornell 48-42-6. The Big Red won the first of this season's two ECAC Hockey-counted meetings on Oct. 29 in Baker, 3-1. This will be the teams' sixth meeting on neutral ice, with all of the previous five coming between 1986 and 1989 and four of those in ECAC tournaments.
Stat Rankings: Entering the week, Princeton stood No. 6 in the nation on both the penalty kill, at 90.5 percent, and in faceoff percentage, winning at the draw 55.9 percent of the time. Individually, sophomore netminder Jennifer Olnowich ranked 13th in GAA (1.71) and 18th in save percentage at .928.
Outshoot 'em: Princeton has outshot its opponent overall in seven of eight games on the season, with the loss at Yale as the lone exception. On the season, Princeton is averaging 32.3 shots a game to 25.3 for its opponent.Â
Tournament Success: Princeton made it to the ECAC semifinals for the third consecutive competitive season last winter, making some history in the process. Princeton became the first eighth seed to win a three-game series from the top-seeded team in the quarterfinals since the best-of-three quarterfinal format began in 2002. Princeton made the ECAC semis in 2019 and won it for the first time in 2020.
Between the Pipes: Sophomore Jennifer Olnowich has played about 73 percent of the minutes in goal this season with rookie Taylor Hyland playing the other 27 percent. Olnowich has the lower GAA, at 1.71 to 1.88 for Hyland, while Hyland has the edge in save percentage, .935 to .928.
New Scores: Princeton has seen three players score their first career goals this season in rookies Emerson O'Leary, Issy Wunder and Katherine Khramtsov. Senior Maggie Connors and junior Sarah Fillier, 109 career goals between them, have added four more, and sophomore Dominique Cormier has netted her fourth career goal.
Nice Addition: Back for her junior season is Sarah Fillier, who last played for Princeton in the 2019-20 season that ended due to the pandemic just before the NCAA tournament. In the meantime, Fillier helped Canada to two IIHF World Championships and Olympic gold. Fillier has 73 career assists, more than halfway to the program record of 122 (Katherine Issel '95, only Princeton player with 100 career assists), and 120 career points, more than halfway to the program record of 218 (Issel, one of three players with 200 career points).
