No. 12 Princeton to Visit Brown, No. 15 Yale This Weekend

As the ECAC Hockey weekend continues, the No. 12-ranked Princeton women's hockey team will head to New England for the final time on the regular season, visiting Brown on Friday and No. 15 Yale on Saturday.

at Brown, Fri., 6 p.m. | ESPN+ (U.S.) | TSN+ (Canada) | Int'l VIdeo | Live Stats
at Yale, Sat., 3 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats

In the Rankings: Princeton stands No. 12 in the latest USCHO and No. 12 in the latest USA Hockey/The Rink Live national rankings. ECAC Hockey continues to have seven teams ranked in the 15-team polls, in No. 3/3 Clarkson, No. 4/4 Colgate, No. 6/6 Cornell, No. 8/8 Quinnipiac, No. 9/10 St. Lawrence, No. 12/12 Princeton, and No. 15/15 Yale.

ECAC Hockey standings: With four weekends to go in the ECAC Hockey regular season, Princeton stands sixth in the league standings with 20.5 points. Cornell and Quinnipiad are tied for fourth, the spot with the last first-round bye, at 29 points, and Brown is in eighth with the last first-round hosting spot at 13.5 points. Colgate leads the league at 39 points. Yale is seventh at 20 points.

Kaz Watch: Enering the week ranked No. 1 in the nation in points per game (1.00) and No. 8 in points per game (1.53), Sarah Fillier is one of seven players in Division I ranked in the top eight in at least two of goals per game, assists per game, or points per game. The other six players wear just three other uniforms, in Cornell (Daniel), Colgate (Kaltounkova, Serdachny), and Wisconsin (Simms, O'Brien, Curl). Fillier was twice named a Kazmaier Award top-10 finalist, in 2019 during her freshman season and in 2020 during her sophomore season.

Team Effort: Fifteen players have scored a goal for Princeton this season. Among those who have already surpassed their previous season-best goal total coming into this season are sophomore Sarah Paul, who has scored 13 goals after getting two in an injury-shortened seven-game rookie season in 2021-22, and sophomore Jane Kuehl, who has scored seven this year after three in her rookie year last winter. Sarah Fillier is close to surpassing her previous career best goal total, with 19 this year and 22 each as a freshman and sophomore. Six players have scored at least 10 points this season, and of those, sophomores Issy Wunder (25 this year, 18 last season), Emerson O'Leary (20 this year, 11 last season), Paul (19 this year, five in 2021-22), and Jane Kuehl (13 this year, seven last season) have surpassed their previous season-best point totals. Senior Fillier leads the team with 29 points and classmate Annie Kuehl has 13.

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 fourth, with 180. She's the program's highest-scoring player of the 21st century, is 20 points from becoming the fourth player in program history (first since 1995) to reach 200 points, and is 27 points out of a third-place tie.

Goals: With 82 goals, Fillier is eighth and five out of a tie for seventh (87). To become the highest-scoring Tiger of this century, Fillier would need 14 more goals to pass former teammate Carly Bullock '20 (95).

Assists: At 98 career assists, Fillier is in second place, behind only record holder Katherine Issel '95 (122). Only one player in Princeton men's program history, John Messuri '89 (118), has as many assists as Fillier.

Fillier with Team Canada: Senior Sarah Fillier won an Olympic gold medal with Canada at the 2022 Olympic Games, returning Canada to the top of the podium for the first time since the 2014 Games after the U.S. won in 2018. At the 2022 Games, Fillier scored eight goals to stand second among Canadians as well as among all players in the tournament, and she had 11 points to stand sixth, again both among all players and Canadians. Fillier is a three-time IIHF Women's World Championship medalist, winning gold in 2021 in Calgary, gold in 2022 in Denmark and silver in 2023 in Brampton, Ont.

The Staff: At 100-65-19, Head coach Cara Morey is in her seventh overall year and sixth competitive season (2020-21 lost to the pandemic) leading the program. Her 100 career wins are second-most in program history to predecessor Jeff Kampersal '92 (327). On Jan. 13 at Harvard, Morey became 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.

Coaches connection: Brown head coach Melanie Ruzzi was an assistant coach at Princeton from June 2019 until taking the Brown head coaching job in May 2021. While the 2020-21 season was lost to the pandemic, Ruzzi's one competitive season at Princeton was a standout one, as Princeton won the ECAC Hockey tournament title for the first time and set a program record with 26 wins. Ruzzi will be coaching against not only her former boss on Friday, but against a Brown alum in Cara Morey. A 2001 alum, Morey, then as Cara Gardiner, was a first-team All-Ivy and second-team All-ECAC defender as a senior, earning the university's Bessie Rudd Award honor as the female athlete who has done the most to promote women's sports. Both Morey and her husband, Sean, are Brown alums, with Sean '99 as a three-time All-Ivy receiver for the football team.

Series History: Princeton leads the all-time series with Brown 55-30-3 overall and 29-14-2 in Providence. Last season's overtime win by Brown in Princeton broke a 23-game unbeaten streak for Princeton in the series in which the Tigers were 22-0-1, with Brown last having won in 2010, also in Princeton. In Providence, Princeton has won 14 straight games and is unbeaten in 16 straight, tying in 2008 and with Brown's last win coming in 2006. Princeton leads the all-time series with Yale 67-20-3 overall and 33-8-3 in New Haven. The Bulldogs have won the last five meetings overall and last two in New Haven. Princeton's last win against Yale, both overall and on the road, was in 2021.

On Brown: At 8-12-1 overall and 4-9-1 in the league, Brown will be looking to break a three-game skid since a win over RIT on Jan. 6. In the league, the Bears have dropped their last five and are winless in their last six since a win over Union on Nov. 11. Jade Iginla leads the team with 10 goals while India McDadi leads the team with 17 points. Iginla's father, Jarome, was a teammate of Princeton assistant coach Jamie Lundmark for parts of four seasons with the Calgary Flames between 2005 and 2010. Kaley Doyle has played most of the minutes in goal, carrying a 2.26 GAA.

On Yale: At 10-11-0 overall and 7-7-0 in the league, Yale will enter Friday's visit from Quinnipiac also looking to break a three-game skid overall and two in the league since sweeping a weekend with travel partner Brown Dec. 2-3. Elle Hartje co-leads the team with eight goals and leads with 25 points, with Jordan Ray and Stephanie Stainton also at eight. Pia Dukaric has played most of the minutes in goal, carrying a 2.00 GAA.

Stat Rankings: Princeton's top-10 national stat rankings include fourth with a .566 faceoff win percentage, ninth with 20 power-play goals, and 10th with 3.14 goals per game. Sarah Fillier leads the nation at 1.00 goals per game, is fifth with seven power-play goals, and is eighth with 1.53 points per game. Sarah Paul is sixth with four game-winning goals and ninth with five power-play goals.

Against the top 10: Princeton's Nov. 18, 2023 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.

The Ivy title: Yale, Cornell and Princeton enter the weekend tied atop the Ivy standings with 15 points apiece, but the Bulldogs and the Big Red have two games in hand on Princeton, each having played six of the 10 Ivy games, while the Tigers will wrap Ivy play with this weekend's games.

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