No. 8 Princeton To Host No. 9 Yale, Brown With Championships On The Line

Friday, February 13

Princeton, N.J.

6:00 PM

Princeton University

#9/9 Yale

posed photo of women's hockey class of 2026

The Princeton women's hockey Class of 2026. Clockwise, from top left: Jane Kuehl, Katherine Khramtsov, Issy Wunder, Emerson O'Leary, Taylor Hyland.

No. 8 Princeton To Host No. 9 Yale, Brown With Championships On The Line

February 10, 2026 | Women's Ice Hockey

In the rankings: Princeton stands No. 8 in both the latest USCHO poll the latest USA Hockey/The Rink Live national rankings. ECAC Hockey has six teams ranked in at least one of the two 15-team polls, in No. 7/7 Quinnipiac, No. 8/8 Princeton, No. 9/9 Yale, No. 11/11 Cornell, No. 12/12 Clarkson, and No. 15/14 Colgate.

Princeton in the polls: Princeton has been in the top 10 each week since Dec. 8-9, peaking at No. 7 in the USCHO poll on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, the team's highest ranking in that poll since No. 6 at the end of the 2019-20 season, and peaking at No. 6 in the USA Hockey poll on Feb. 3, also the highest ranking since being No. 6 at the end of the 2019-20 season.

ECAC & Ivy Standings: With 44 points, Princeton sits atop the ECAC standings, but the margin is just two points and second-place Yale (42) is coming to Baker this weekend. The Tigers have clinched no worse than fourth, based on tiebreakers, meaning the ECAC quarterfinal round is coming to Baker Rink Feb. 27-28/March 1, and Princeton can win the program's first ECAC Hockey championship with a win on Friday night. Any other result would extend the uncertainty into Saturday and bring other results into play, with Quinnipiac (40) just two points back of Yale. Princeton's top finish all-time in the ECAC standings has been second, in 2006, 2019 and 2020, and the last time Princeton was home for the quarterfinals was 2020, when it won its only ECAC tournament title. Princeton was also home for best-of-three quarterfinals in 2002 (lost), 2003 (won), 2006 (won), 2007 (lost), 2009 (lost), 2011 (lost), 2016 (lost), 2017 (won) and 2019 (won).

The Ivy League standings show Princeton in fourth place, but six points are still on the table for the Tigers, and no other team has enough points left to win to catch Cornell, which is in the clubhouse at 21 points. Yale is at 17 with a max of 20, Harvard finished its 10 Ivy games with 16.5, and Princeton is at 16 with the possibility of 22, while Brown is at 10.5 with 13.5 as its max. A weekend sweep would deliver Princeton the outright Ivy title with five points giving it a share with Cornell.The Ivy League title would be Princeton's first since 2019 and ninth all-time (1982, 1983, 1984, 1992, 1995, 2006, 2016).

Against Yale and Brown: Princeton went to Providence and New Haven early this season, winning 4-2 at Brown on Oct. 24 and losing 4-3 to Yale in overtime the next day. Against Brown, Issy Wunder, Emerson O'Leary, Jane Kuehl and Mackenzie Alexander split the goals while Monique Lyons and Margot Norehad each had a goal for Brown. Taylor Hyland made 22 stops in net for Princeton while Rory Edwards had 31 saves for Brown. At Yale, Kuehl, Alexander and Katherine Khramtsov had the goals for Princeton while Carina DiAntonio had all four for the Bulldogs. Uma Corniea had 24 stops for Princeton and Naomi Baechler had 17 for Yale. Princeton and Yale met in a non-conference game at Baker on Nov. 25, and Princeton won that one 4-3 in OT. Wunder and Hannah Fetterolf had two goals apiece, and Jordan Ray, Naomi Boucher and Stephanie Stainton each had a goal for Yale. Baechler had 22 saves for Yale and Corniea had 26 for Princeton. All-time, the series with Yale stands 69-23-4 in Princeton's favor, and 36-12 Princeton's way in Baker. Princeton has won two of the last three over Yale after Yale went 7-0-1 over the previous eight games since 2022. Against Brown, Princeton leads 56-31-5 all-time and 26-14-2 in Baker. Since 2022, the series stands 3-2-3 for Princeton overall while Princeton has a tie and a win over the last two in Baker.

Stat Rankings: Entering the week, Princeton ranked third in the nation in shutouts (eight), fourth in team GAA (1.582) and scoring defense (1.59), fifth in scoring margin (1.89), seventh in scoring offense (3.48) and winning percentage (.741), ninth in total goals (94), and 10th in team points (245). Individually, Issy Wunder is ranked first in game-winning goals (six), fifth in goals per game (0.85) and 12th in points per game (1.41), and Mackenzie Alexander was seventh in goals per game (0.78), 11th in points per game (1.44) and 14th in power-play goals (five).

Between the pipes: Entering the week, Uma Corniea ranked seventh in the nation in shutouts (five), 12th in GAA (1.756) and save percentage (.936) and 15th in winning percentage (.650). Corniea, who is on the Women's Hockey Commissioner's Association's Goalie of the Year semifinalist list, has played 1,196 of the team's 1,630 minutes, with Taylor Hyland playing 302 and Lia Nevo 120.

On offense: Issy Wunder and Mackenzie Alexander account for 31.4 percent of the team's points on the season overall, but teammates have seen spikes in contributions lately. Angelina DiGirolamo has scored three of her season's five goals over the last four games. Jane Kuehl has four goals over the last three games, accounting for nearly a third of her 13 goals on the season. Riley Sorokan has three goals over the last five games, more than half of her eight goals on the season.

100-point scorer: Senior Emerson O'Leary reached the career 100-point mark with two assists at Clarkson on Jan. 31, becoming the sixth Tiger in the last decade to reach 100, and enters this weekend with 101 career points. Issy Wunder as the only other active Tiger with 100 (Wunder enters the weekend at 141). The next-closest Tiger is Mackenzie Alexander, who's got 85 career points and is only in her sophomore season. The five past-decade Tigers O'Leary joined in the 100-point club are: Sarah Fillier '24 (194), Carly Bullock '20 (159), Maggie Connors '23 (145), Wunder, and Karlie Lund '19 (131).

Team records in sight: At 20 wins, this is already tied for the fourth-winningest season in program history, and the eighth 20-win season in program history. There's been one season with more than 22 wins, when the Tigers won 26 in 2019-20. The team has allowed 43 goals this season, and while the program record is 39, set in 1979-80, the team's low goals allowed going back to 2000 has been 57 in 2019-20 and 2005-06. The team already has eight shutouts, tying a program record set in 2002-03.

Wunder climbs the list: WIth 66 career goals, Issy Wunder is 16th on Princeton's career list. Immediately ahead of her are Mandy Pfeiffer '97 and Alison Coughlin '99 at 69 goals. Among those to play for the Tigers since 2000, Wunder has the fifth-highest total, behind Carly Bullock '20 (95), Sarah Fillier '24 (93), Gretchen Anderson '04 (87) and Maggie Connors '23 (78). There have been only 16 25-goal seasons in program history and only seven of those have come since 2000, with Wunder already having one of those, with last year's 26-goal season. Wunder has 23 goals this season, and only three players in program history have two 25-goal seasons, with none of those players having played since 2000. Kelly O'Dell '84, Karen Chernisky '95, and Mollie Marcoux '91 are the three players with at least two 25-goal seasons. Wunder's 75 career assists have her tied for 11th on Princeton's career list with just five of those in front of her having played since 2000 in Fillier (101), Andrea Kilbourne '03 (94), teammate Emerson O'Leary (78), Kim Pearce '07 (77), and Karlie Lund '19 (76). Immediately in front of her are O'Leary (78), Pearce (77) and Lund (76). O'Leary is eighth on the list, and immediately in front of her is Laura Halldorson '85 at 83.

Tigers at the Games: Sarah Filler '24 and Claire Thompson '20, both of whom helped Canada to gold in Beijing in 2022, are again part of Team Canada as the Canadians moved through group play this week and into this weekend's quarterfinals. Should Canada advance, the semifinals are set for Monday, Feb. 16 with the medal games on Thursday, Feb. 19.

Picard at U-18 Worlds: Princeton assistant coach Shelly Picard was on the Team USA staff at the U-18 World Championships in Nova Scotia that wrapped up Jan. 18 with Team USA winning gold. The team went 3-0 in group play, defeating Slovakia, Czechia and Finland by a combined 36-1. The quarterfinals saw Team USA rout Hungary 9-0, followed by a 9-1 win over Sweden in the semis. setting up the gold-medal game against Canada, which Team USA won 2-0. Picard was an assistant coach with Team USA at the event in 2024 and 2025, helping the U.S. to gold in '24 and silver in '25. As a player, Picard helped Team USA to gold in 2011 as team captain and silver in 2010. While the U.S. and Canada have combined to win 33 of the 36 gold and silver medals since the event began in 2008, the three other occasions have been in recent years, when Sweden won silver in 2018 and 2023, and Czechia won silver in 2024.

What's next: Princeton will be off next weekend before hosting the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, Feb. 27-28 and March 1 if necessary.