Women's hockey still sits on playoff bubble with weekend split

U2. Steeley Dan. The women's hockey team.

Last week was certainly a week of comebacks. The Tigers may not have won a Grammy, but they turned in their own comeback performance this weekend.

The Tigers had a solid effort, going 1-1 on the weekend. Saturday, Princeton — which currently sits in tenth place in the Eastern Col-lege Athletic Conference — edged out No. 9 Maine, 3-1. But despite a strong performance Sunday, the Tigers then fell 2-1 to No. 6 New Hampshire (17-14-0 overall, 13-9-0 ECAC).

With an assist from junior forward and fellow captain Andrea Kil-bourne, senior forward Abbey Fox got the game rolling on Saturday when she gave Princeton a 1-0 lead over Maine (14-13-1, 9-12-1) at eight minutes, 45 seconds into the first period.

Though the squad had struggled to maintain an early lead in previous games this season, this was not the case Saturday. Princeton fought off the Black Bears and kept them scoreless going into the final period.

In the third period, after a scramble in front of Maine's goal, freshman forward Gretchen Anderson — with assists from Kilbourne and Fox — slipped the puck into the net and solidified Princeton's lead at 2-0. Within three minutes junior forward Jessica Fedderly extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal.

Princeton was four minutes away from its fourth shutout of the season when Maine managed a power-play goal of its own. That would be the last goal of the game as the Tigers turned in a 3-1 victory.

"Beating Maine Saturday really brought us together as a team," Anderson said. "We felt more confident going into the game and we gave it all our heart."

Only 1:42 into the game Sunday, Princeton (12-12-3, 6-11-3) found itself down one player when sophomore forward Sarah Brownlee was sent to the penalty box for cross checking.

A minute later, however, the Tigers took New Hampshire by surprise when Kilbourne fired a shot into Maine's net. Scoring her 20th goal of the season and the team's first shorthanded goal of the year, Kilbourne gave the Tigers an early lead.

"That first goal was amazing," Anderson said. "It really got us pumped up for the rest of the game."

Princeton managed to hold on to its energy and its lead throughout the entire first and half of the second period. There were a few close calls near Princeton's cage but freshman goalie Megan Van Beusekom kept the puck from reaching the net, registering 22 saves.

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One period and four penalties later, the Tigers were still in the lead. With seven minutes remaining on the clock, however, New Hampshire slipped a shot behind Van Beusekom and tied the score at 1-1.

The playing only got more vicious. Both the Tigers and the Wildcats had power play opportunites as each team had penalties in the remaining five minutes of the second stanza. Princeton fought against the rough-playing Wildcats as the Tigers struggled to regain the upper hand. New Hampshire's speedy passing and quick stick handling had finally broken through Princeton's strong defense.

Throughout the third period Princeton fans sat at the edge of their seats, waiting for the puck to reach the Wildcat's net. Despite several near misses by the Tigers, UNH was first to score.

Only a minute after Anderson saw her own shot caught by the UNH goalie, she saw the puck slip past Van Beusekom into the back right corner of Princeton's net.

"During the entire third period we were just fighting not to lose," Anderson said. "We tend to take the extra stick handle when we really need to get the shot off. That really hurt us Sunday."