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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Quinnipiac
No. 12 Princeton to Visit No. 9 Quinnipiac on Saturday
January 31, 2024 | Women's Ice Hockey
Ahead of its final home weekend of the regular season next weekend, the No. 12-ranked Princeton women's hockey team will head to No. 9 Quinnipiac on Saturday to wrap up its season series with its ECAC Hockey travel partner.
at Quinnipiac, 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 Colgate, No. 4/4 Clarkson, No. 6/6 Cornell, No. 8/8 St. Lawrence, No. 9/9 Quinnipiac, No. 12/12 Princeton, and No. 14/14 Yale.
ECAC Hockey standings: With three weekends to go in the ECAC Hockey regular season, Princeton stands tied for sixth in the league standings with Yale with 23.5 points. Cornell stands fourth, the spot with the last first-round bye, at 35 points, and Brown is in eighth with the last first-round hosting spot at 18 points. Colgate leads the league at 45 points. Quinnipiac is fifth at 30 points, five points back of Cornell for the last first-round bye.
Kaz Watch: Sarah Fillier entered the week ranked No. 2 in the nation in goals per game (0.90), No. 6 in power-play goals (seven), and No. 12 in points per game (1.43). 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 (22 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 30 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 181. She's the program's highest-scoring player of the 21st century, is 19 points from becoming the fourth player in program history (first since 1995) to reach 200 points, and is 26 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 99 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, who was recently named The Hockey News' top PWHL prospect for the new league's upcoming draft, is among the active career leaders in Division I in several categories, including the leader in points per game (1.62) and goals per game (0.73), sharing the lead in total goals (82), second in total points (181) and assists per game (0.88) and fourth in assists (99).
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 100-65-21, 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: Quinnipiac coach Cassandra Turner and Princeton coach Cara Morey were teammates for two seasons at Brown, in 1999-2000 and 2000-01, Turner's first two years with the program and Morey's last two. 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.
Series History: Princeton leads the all-time series with Quinnipiac 23-19-4 overall, and Quinnipiac leads 9-8-2 in Hamden. Since 2017, Princeton leads 13-6-0 overall and 4-2 in Hamden, but the Tigers lost their last trip to Quinnipiac 4-0 on Jan. 28, 2023, and the Bobcats won the last meeting overall, on Dec. 9, 2023 in Baker. Princeton led 5-3 going into the third, but a five-minute penalty helped Quinnipiac to tie the game, and then Sadie Peart, who also had the game-tying goal during the penalty, had the game winner midway through the five-minute OT.
On Quinnipiac: The Bobcats are 21-7-1 overall and 10-7-0 in ECAC Hockey heading into the game, but the team has gone 0-4 over the last two weekends, Quinnipiac's longest losing skid since 2018, and its longest skid in ECAC Hockey play since four in a row in 2012. If Princeton wins, it'd be the Bobcats' longest same-season losing streak since 2012 and its first five-game conference skid since 2009. Five players, led by Sadie Peart (14) have hit the 10-goal mark this season for Quinnipiac, and Kate Reilly's team-best 24 assists has Reilly at a team-best 33 points. Logan Angers has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 1.82 GAA. The team entered the week ranked fourth in the nation in goals scored (106), fourth in assists (166), fourth in points (272), 10th in power-play goals (20), seventh in power-play percentage (.256), ninth in goals allowed/game (1.93) and team GAA (1.919), sixth in scoring margin (+1.72) and fifth in goals per game (3.66). Peart was second in the nation in faceoff wins (395) and seventh, along with teammate Nina Steigauf, with four game-winning goals each, and Angers was third with five shutouts.
Stat Rankings: Princeton's top-10 national stat rankings include a fifth-best .557 faceoff winning percentage and a 10th-best 20 power-play goals. Individually, Sarah Fillier ranked second in goals per game (0.90) and sixth in power-play goals (seven), and Sarah Paul ranked seventh with four game-winning goals and 10th 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: Princeton finished the Ivy season last weekend with its ties at Brown and Yale to stand at 18 points. Cornell leads with 21 points and two games to go, and the only team with enough points and games remaining to catch the Big Red is Yale, at 16.5 points with three games to go.
