Ranked Opponents Ahead This Weekend as No. 12 Princeton Honors its Seniors

No. 3 Clarkson and No. 7/6 St. Lawrence are on the docket for the No. 12-ranked Princeton women's hockey team this weekend as the Tigers get set to honor their seniors on Saturday and host Denna Day and National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Friday.

Princeton will recognize its senior class after Saturday's game, including Kate Monihan, Stefanie Wallace, Annie Kuehl, Catherine Kerin, Sarah Fillier, Daniella Calabrese and Emma Kee, who will be playing their last regular-season home games at Baker Rink this weekend.

vs. Clarkson, Fri., 6 p.m. | ESPN+ (USA) | TSN+ (Canada) | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Tickets
vs. St. Lawrence, Sat., 3 p.m. | ESPN+ (USA) | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Tickets

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 has six teams ranked in the 15-team polls, in No. 3/3 Clarkson, No. 4/4 Colgate, No. 6/7 Cornell, No. 7/6 St. Lawrence, No. 9/9 Quinnipiac, and No. 12/12 Princeton.

ECAC Hockey standings: With two weekends to go in the ECAC Hockey regular season, Princeton stands seventh in the league standings with 23.5 points. Princeton cannot climb to fourth, the last first-round bye spot, but is close to clinching hosting the single-game first round, standing 10.5 points ahead of RPI, Union and Dartmouth, all tied for ninth at 13 points, with 12 points left on the table for each team.

Kaz Watch: Sarah Fillier entered the week ranked No. 2 in the nation in goals per game (0.86), No. 6 in power-play goals (seven), and No. 13 in points per game (1.36). 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 14 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 (20 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 2024 draft, is among the active career leaders in Division I in several categories, including the leader in points per game (1.60) and co-leader in total goals (82), second in points (181) and goals per game (0.73), third in assists per game (0.88) and tied for 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 100-66-21, 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.

McQuigges: Though the time of the Clarkson-Princeton matchup being McQuigge vs. McQuigge has passed with the graduation of Rachel McQuigge '22, sisters Kirstyn and Brooke, both forwards, are a senior and a grad student this season with Clarkson. Rachel McQuigge is among Princeton's leaders in career save percentage (second, .933) and GAA (second, 1.81), as well as shutouts (seventh, nine), and saves (seventh, 1,494).

Series History: Clarkson leads the all-time series with Princeton 25-17-2 overall and 11-7-1 at Baker Rink. The Golden Knights have won the last five in the series since Princeton won in the 2020 ECAC semifinals at Cornell. At Baker, Clarkson has won the last two since Princeton won early in the 2019-20 season. Princeton leads the all-time series with St. Lawrence 38-32-4 overall and the teams are tied 18-18-2 at Baker Rink. St. Lawrence has won two straight in the series and four of five with Princeton's win in that stretch coming in Baker early last season.

On Clarkson: At 25-3-2 overall and 14-3-1 in ECAC Hockey, two of the Golden Knights' three losses have come in the last four games, 1-0 at St. Lawrence on Jan. 26 and 3-0 to Cornell last Saturday. Six players have 10-plus goals, with Darcie Lappan, Anne Cherkowski and Brooke McQuigge co-leading the team with 12 goals apiece. Lappan's 29 points are a team-best. Michelle Pasiechnyk has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 1.35 GAA. Clarkson leads the nation in scoring defense at 1.17 goals per game and has the second-best PK in the nation at 91.1 percent.

On St. Lawrence: At 21-9-0 overall and 14-4-0 in ECAC Hockey, St. Lawrence has won eight of its last nine, including a sweep last weekend of then-No. 6 Cornell and then-No. 3 Colgate, heading into Friday night's game at Quinnipiac. Abby Hustler leads four 10-goal scorers with 19 points, while Julia Gosling's 27 assists are a team-best, and Gosling and Hustler co-lead the team with 44 points. Emma-Sofie Nordström has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 2.12 GAA. The Saints' 32 power-play goals are second in the nation, led by Hustler's nation-best 11, and the team's 30.5 conversion rate on power plays is third.

Stat Rankings: Princeton's has the nation's fourth-best faceoff winning percentage, at .558, while Sarah Fillier is second in the nation in goals per game, at 0.86, and sixth in power play goals, with seven. Sarah Paul's four game-winning goals are 10th nationally.

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.

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