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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Harvard (ECAC Quarterfinals Game 1)
ECAC Quarterfinals Head to Baker This Weekend as Princeton Hosts Harvard
February 24, 2026 | Women's Ice Hockey
vs. Harvard | ECAC Quarterfinals | ESPN+ | Live Scoring | Int'l Video | Tickets
Friday, 3 p.m.Â
In the rankings: Princeton stands No. 10 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 Yale, No. 10/10 Princeton, No. 11/11 Cornell, No. 13/13 Colgate, and No. 15/15 Clarkson.
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 Champions!: Overtime goals in the regular-season finale for Princeton, on the winning end, and Yale, on the losing end, solidified a tie atop the ECAC Hockey standings at 46 points apiece, delivering Princeton its first ECAC Hockey championship, surpassing its previous best program finish, second, in 2006, 2019 and 2020.
In the ECAC Tournament: 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). In the best-of-three quarterfinals era, Princeton made the semis in 2003, 2006, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022, with 2020 as the only time in program history that the team made the final.
Against Harvard: This will be the fifth time Princeton and Harvard have met in a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal. The others were in 2002 (home, lost in two), 2010 (away, lost in two), 2012 (away, lost in two), and 2022 (away, won in three, taking games one and three). Harvard leads the all-time series 54-42-7, with Princeton leading 21-10-5 at Baker Rink. With its 3-2 win on Feb. 7 in Cambridge, Harvard broke an eight-game series unbeaten streak and a four-game series win streak in the series for Princeton. This season, on Jan. 16 at Baker Rink, Princeton was a 3-1 winner, getting goals from Jane Kuehl, Megan Healy and Issy Wunder before Harvard's Carla McSweeney spoiled the shutout midway through the third period. Uma Corniea made 15 stops for Princeton and Ainsley Tuffy made 34 for the Crimson. Three weeks later, Princeton again got goals from Kuehl and Healy to lead 2-1 after a period, but Morgan McGathey had her second goal of the day to tie it in the second period and Ella Lucia won it with less than five minutes to go in the third. Corniea made 21 stops for Princeton while Tuffy made 38 for Harvard.
Stat Rankings: Entering the week, Princeton ranked fourth in the nation in scoring defense (1.62 goals allowed per game), fourth in team GAA (1.610), fourth in shutouts (eight), sixth in scoring margin (+1.72), seventh in scoring offense (3.34 goals/game), and with the eighth-best winning percentage (.724). Individually, Issy Wunder's seven game-winning goals led the nation, her 0.86 goals per game were third in the nation, and her 1.41 points per game were ninth in the nation. Mackenzie Alexander had the seventh-best goals per game in the nation (0.72) and was 10th in points per game (1.38).Â
Between the pipes: Entering the week, Uma Corniea ranked seventh in the nation in shutouts (five), 12th in save percentage (.937) and 14th in GAA (1.781). Corniea, who is on the Women's Hockey Commissioner's Association's Goalie of the Year semifinalist list, has played 1,314 of the team's 1,751 minutes, with Taylor Hyland playing 302 and Lia Nevo 120.Â
On offense: Issy Wunder and Mackenzie Alexander account for 32.1 percent of the team's points on the season overall, but teammates have seen spikes in contributions lately. Over the final two weekends of the regular season, Jane Kuehl has had two multi-point games, and Rosie Klein had a two-point game against Brown that gave her five points in the team's last five games as 13 Tigers scored a point over the team's final four regular-season games.
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 the ECAC postseason with 102 career points. Issy Wunder is the only other active Tiger with 100 (Wunder enters the postseason at 144). The next-closest Tiger is Mackenzie Alexander, who's got 86 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 21 wins, this is already tied for the third-winningest season in program history, along with a 21-win season in 2005-06 and behind only a 22-win season in 2015-16 and a 26-win season in 2019-20. The team has allowed 47 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.Â
Wunder climbs the list: WIth 68 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, followed by Laura Halldorson '85 at 75. 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). With 25 goals this season and 26 last season, Wunder is just the fourth player in program history to have two 25-goal seasons, with none of the other three 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 76 career assists have her tied for 10th 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 (79), Kim Pearce '07 (77), and Karlie Lund '19 (76). Immediately in front of her are Pearce (77), O'Leary (79) and Halldorson (83). O'Leary is eighth on the list, with Halldorson (83) and O'Dell (86) right in front of her.
Tigers at the Games: Sarah Filler '24 and Claire Thompson '20, both of whom helped Canada to gold in Beijing in 2022, added to their medal collection on Feb. 19 at the 2026 Olympics in Milan, helping Canada to the silver medal as the Canadians battled their top rivals from Team USA to overtime in the pursuit of gold.Â
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: Should the Tigers advance, they'll be playing in their seventh semifinals since the ECAC postseason had a best-of-three quarterfinals beginning in 2002, and first since 2022. For the first time for the women's tournament, the semis and final will be held in Lake Placid, N.Y., at the 1980 Rink at Herb Brooks Arena.
