Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Quinnipiac
Visit From No. 7 Quinnipiac, Teddy Bear Toss Set for Saturday at Baker
December 06, 2023 | Women's Ice Hockey
vs. Quinnipiac, Sat., 3 p.m. | ESPN+ (U.S.) | TSN+ (Canada) | Int'l Video | Tickets | Live Stats | Fan Information | Game ProgramÂ
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In the Rankings: The USCHO and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls mirror each other this week as far as the seven ECAC Hockey programs included go, with Colgate at No. 4, Clarkson at No. 5, Quinnipiac at No. 7, Cornell at No. 9, St. Lawrence at No. 10, Princeton at No. 12, and Yale at No. 13. With seven, the ECAC has almost half the teams in the 15-team poll, and more than half of the 12-team league is ranked.
Team Effort: Princeton has seen 13 players score goals this season with Sarah Fillier's 12 goals leading the way and Issy Wunder (5G/13A/18P), Fillier (12G/4A/16P), Emerson O'Leary (5G/10A/15P), Sarah Paul (8G/5A/13P), Jane Kuehl (6G/5A/11P) and Annie Kuehl (3G/7A/10P) all with 10-plus points. Already, 19 Tigers have scored a point, the most in a season for the team since the 2021-22 season, when 20 players had a point. Among Princeton's leading scorers, Wunder, a sophomore with 18 points, has already met her rookie-year point total of 18, fueled by 13 assists that have already surpassed her nine from last year. Sophomore O'Leary has followed the same path, with 10 assists and 15 points outdoing her four helpers and 11 points from last year. Sophomore Paul has bettered her totals in goals, assists and points, with 2-3-5 last season and 8-5-13 already this season. Sophomore Jane Kuehl has surpassed all three stats from last year, with 3-4-7 in 2022-23 and 6-5-11 this year.
Fillier Climbs the Charts: Here's an update on where Sarah Fillier stands on Princeton's career points, goals, and assists list:
Points: Fillier stands sixth, with 167. She's three out of a tie for fifth, and with four more points to get to 171, she'd be the highest-scoring Princeton player of the 21st century.Â
Goals: Having become on Tuesday the 13th player in program history to score 75 career goals, Fillier can climb the charts quickly. Her next goal will put her in a three-way tie for 10th, at 76, and four more goals will put her alone in eighth, surpassing former teammate Maggie Connors '23 (78). To become the highest-scoring Tiger of this century, Fillier would need 21 more goals to pass former teammate Carly Bullock '20 (95).Â
Assists: At 92 career assists, Fillier is fourth, two back of a tie for third and four back of a tie for second. Andrea Kilbourne '03 has the most of any Tiger to play this century, at 94, and five more helpers would put Fillier alone in second place at 97, behind only record holder Katherine Issel '95 (122).Â
The Staff: At 97-62-18, Head coach Cara Morey is in her seventh overall year and sixth competitive season (2020-21 lost to the pandemic) leading the program. Her 97 career wins are second-most in program history to predecessor Jeff Kampersal '92 (327). With three 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.Â
Series History: Princeton leads Quinnipiac 23-18-4 all-time since the first meeting in 2001, Quinnipiac's first season as a varsity program, and with all but one of those meetings coming since Quinnipiac joined ECAC Hockey ahead of the 2005-06 season. The series has had three see-saw runs of success, with Princeton starting 9-0-2 from the first meeting in 2001 through the 2009-10 season, Quinnipiac then going 13-1-1 from the 2010-11 season through the 2015-16 season, and Princeton going 13-5-0 since the 2016-17 season. Last time the teams met, Princeton stunned the Bobcats, then ranked No. 4 in the country, 11-3 in Baker Rink on Jan. 29, 2023, just a day after Quinnipiac won 4-0 on home ice. Sarah Fillier and Jane Kuehl both had hat tricks in that game, which saw the teams combine to score seven first-period goals, have a relatively quiet second period with two Princeton goals, and then five more goals in the third with Princeton scoring four of them. Though each team won on its home ice in the 2022-23 season, the road teams won both games in 2021-22.Â
On Quinnipiac: The Bobcats have won four in a row since a loss to Colgate on Nov. 18. Sadie Peart (11G/10A/21P) and Nina Steigauf (10G/8A/18P) are double-digit goal scorers, and Peart and Kate Reilly (4G/16A/20P) lead nine skaters with 10-plus points. Logan Angers has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 1.51 GAA. Tiger assistant coach Melissa Samoskevich stands third in Quinnipiac's program history in career goals (54), fifth in assists (55), fourth in points (109) and tied for 13th in games played (144). Samoskevich's sister, Maddy, is a senior for the Bobcats.
Stat Rankings: Entering this week, Princeton was third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage (.576), 11th in shutouts (three), 11th in power-play goals (12), 12th in goals per game (3.00), 13th in winning percentage (.643), 14th in scoring margin (+0.79), 14th in power-play percentage (.211), and 15th in scoring defense (2.21 goals allowed/game). Individually, Princeton's top-25 rankings included Sarah Fillier's sixth-best four power-play goals, seventh-best 0.82 goals per game, Uma Corniea's 18th-best two shutouts, Issy Wunder's 19th-best 0.79 assists per game, Sarah Paul's 22nd-best two game-winning goals, Corniea's 23rd-best 2.179 GAA, and Corniea's 23rd-best .922 save percentage.
Against the top 10: Princeton's Nov. 18 win over then-No. 6-ranked Cornell was the 16th win over a top-10 team under Cara Morey, who is in her sixth competitive season as the team's head coach. It was Princeton's third top-six win of calendar year 2023, as the Tigers beat No. 4 Quinnipiac on Jan. 23 at Baker Rink and No. 3 Colgate to open the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals on Feb. 24 in Hamilton.Â
