Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Colgate
Pair of Top-10 Opponents Ahead for No. 13/14 Princeton on Central New York Trip
November 14, 2023 | Women's Ice Hockey
A visit to No. 3/3 Colgate on Friday and No. 6/6 Cornell on Saturday is ahead for the No. 13/14-ranked Princeton women's hockey team, which will carry a three-game win streak into the weekend.
at No. 3/3 Colgate, Friday, 6 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | TSN+ | Live Stats
at No. 6/6 Cornell, Saturday, 3 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats
In the Rankings: Princeton is No. 13 in the USCHO poll and No. 14 in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll this week. ECAC Hockey was again well represented in both polls, with Colgate (3/3), Clarkson (5/5), Cornell (6/6), St. Lawrence (7/7), Quinnipiac (9/9), Yale (11/11) and Princeton (13/14) giving the league nearly half the teams in the polls.
Team Effort: Princeton has seen 11 players score goals over the first five weekends with Sarah Fillier, Emerson O'Leary and Jane Kuehl co-leading the team with five goals apiece and Issy Wunder's four goals and eight assists giving her a team-best 12 points. Already, 17 Tigers have scored a point, just one short of the 18 players who scored a point in all of last season.
Fillier Climbs the Charts: Sarah Fillier, who was with Team Canada last weekend for a pair of Rivalry Series games in Tempe, Ariz., and Los Angeles, has one more season to further cement her place in the Princeton record books. Her 159 career points stand tied with former teammate Carly Bullock '20 for sixth, and a stand-alone fourth-place position is 18 points away. With 41 points, she'd become the fourth player in program history with 200 career points, and Katherine Issel '95 holds the record at 218. Fillier's 68 career goals are 15th, and with 28 more goals, she'd become Princeton's highest-scoring player of this century, surpassing former teammate Maggie Connors '23 (78), Gretchen Anderson '04 (87) and Bullock (95). Kelly O'Dell '84 holds the record at 121 and is one of three players in program history to score 100 goals. Fillier's 91 assists are fourth all-time, and stand-alone second place is six assists away. With nine more assists, Fillier would join record holder Issel (121) as the only players in program history with 100 career assists.
The Staff: Head coach Cara Morey is back for her seventh overall year and sixth competitive season (2020-21 lost to the pandemic) leading the program. Her 94 career wins are second-most in program history to predecessor Jeff Kampersal '92 (327). With six more wins, Morey would become the second Princeton women's hockey coach and sixth hockey coach between the men's and women's programs to reach 100 wins. The four men's coaches who have reached 100 are Richard Vaughan (158 from 1935-59), Jim Higgins (130 from 1977-91), Don Cahoon (122 from 1991-2000), and Guy Gadowsky (105 from 2004-11). Along with Dan Gould, who returns and coaches the goaltenders, Morey has two new assistant coaches in Jamie Lundmark, who played professionally from 2001-18 including parts of six seasons in the NHL with the Rangers, Coyotes, Flames, Kings and Maple Leafs, and Melissa Samoskevich, who stands among the highest-scoring players in Quinnipiac history after graduating in 2019.
Series History: Princeton leads the all-time series with Colgate 32-15-5 overall and 14-8-4 in Hamilton. The Raiders are 5-1-1 in the games after the pandemic pause, though each of the last three meetings, all in last season's quarterfinal series in Hamilton, was a one-goal game with Princeton taking one of the three. The Tigers lead Cornell in the all-time series 48-43-7 overall and are even 23-23-1 in Ithaca. No team has won or tied consecutive games in the series since Cornell won three straight at the end of the 2018-19 season into 2019-20, and since then, beginning with Princeton's win in the 2023 ECAC Hockey tournament final, the Big Red have gone 3-1-2 against the Tigers.
On Colgate: The Raiders are off to a strong start at 11-1-0 with 10 straight wins since the lone loss, a 3-2 overtime defeat at home to then-and-now No. 2 Ohio State. Colgate rolled past Dartmouth and Harvard a combined 18-2 on the road last weekend and has outscored opponents 60-17 on the season. Kristýna Kaltounková leads the Raiders' 10 goal scorers with 12 so far, and Kayle Osborne has played most of the minutes in goal, carrying a 1.22 GAA.
On Cornell: Like their Central New York travel partners, Cornell is on a roll to start the season, entering the weekend undefeated at 10-0-1 with the lone tie back on Oct. 20 against a Mercyhurst team that the Tigers swept last weekend. Since then, it's been seven straight wins for the Big Red, and Cornell has outscored opponents 48-15. Izzy Daniel has 12 of those goals and a team-best 16 assists to lead the way with 28 points, and Annelies Bergmann has played most of the minutes in goal with a 1.36 GAA.
Stat Rankings: Princeton leads the nation in faceoff winning percentage at .622 with its next-highest stat ranking being 12th in several categories, including goals allowed per game (2.00), scoring margin (+1.00 goal/game), scoring offense (3.0 goals/game), team GAA (1.983) and shutouts (two). Individually, top-25 rankings include Issy Wunder's ninth-best three power-play goals, Uma Corniea's ninth-best two shutouts, 13th-best 1.506 GAA, 13th-best .941 save percentage, Sarah Fillier's 21st-best 122 faceoff wins, and Wunder's 25th-best 0.80 assists/game.
