Women’s hockey picks up two wins in three games over the weekend

Princeton women’s hockey is making a push to climb the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) standings.

This past weekend, the women’s ice hockey team (10–12–4, 8–9–2 ECAC) headed to Cambridge, Mass., to play No. 7 Harvard (19–7–0, 14–5–0) and then to Hanover, N.H. to face off against Dartmouth (8–17–1, 2–16–1). They beat the Dartmouth Big Green twice but fell to the Harvard Crimson. The results brought the Tigers to within four points of seventh-place Cornell.

On Friday, their first game of the weekend, the Tigers faced the high-ranked Harvard squad, losing 2–0. Despite this game marking a career-best 32 saves for junior goalkeeper Cassie Reale, the Crimson managed to sneak two goals past her. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Harvard outshot Princeton 34–20, and Princeton was unable to get any of their shots past Crimson goalkeeper Lindsay Reed.

Harvard scored one goal in the second period followed by one in the third. Both goals were scored within the first five minutes of each period, but the Tigers still played a strong defense, as they managed to ward off the other 32 attempts throughout the game.

In their second game of the weekend, at Dartmouth, Princeton rebounded well, winning 4–0. Senior forward Shannon Griffin started off the game strong with a goal seven minutes into the first period. Junior forward Maggie Connors scored her first of two goals in the second period on a power-play. Sophomore forward Annie Kuehl scored the third goal of the game on a power play at 18 minutes into the second period.

Connors went on to score her second goal of the game only a minute later, putting the Tigers ahead at 4–0. Sophomore defender Stef Wallace assisted three of the goals, and senior goalkeeper Rachel McQuigge saved all 27 of Dartmouth’s shots.

In their third and final game of the weekend, Princeton demonstrated their dominance over Dartmouth once again, winning 4–1. The Tigers started off the game by building a quick lead, scoring three goals within five minutes of each other. Sophomore forward Daniella Calabrese scored the first goal two minutes into the first period; Kuehl scored the second five minutes in, and Connors scored the third at seven minutes on a power play.

In the second period, junior defender Solveig Neunzert scored the fourth goal on a power play. First-year goalkeeper Jennifer Olnowich managed to save all shots from Dartmouth, except one garbage-time goal in the third period, leaving the final score at 4–1.