Women's hockey turns to Niagara along road to playoffs

One down, five to go.

Last Sunday's 3-1 upset of No. 2 Harvard was just step one of Princeton's plan of assault. The women's hockey team (11-10-2 overall, 6-10-2 Eastern Col-legiate Athletic Conference) hopes to accomplish steps two and three this weekend at Niagara (15-12-3, 7-10-3).

Princeton is aiming to cap off the season with a berth into the ECAC playoffs that will take place in mid-March. If the Tigers win five of their six upcoming games, they are likely to qualify for the tournament.

Princeton — currently ninth in the ECAC — went 1-1 last weekend against Harvard and Brown and is shooting to go 2-0 against the Purple Eagles this weekend. While this feat may have seemed nearly impossible for the Tigers earlier in the season, Princeton could certainly pull off a pair of upsets this weekend.

In Sunday's victory over Harvard, the Tigers proved many things. Princeton proved it could compete with the league's top teams. Moreover, it managed to overcome two crucial problems that had put it at a disadvantage in the past — slow starts and a lack of endurance.

The Tigers surrendered a number of key games this season because they failed to start with a bang. Rather, they would whimper through the first two periods and wait until the final minutes to turn on the intensity.

In order to have a chance at the playoffs, Princeton needs to be in the game from the start and last the entire 60 minutes of play.

"It's really important that we take the puck from the start," head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said. "We can't feed it to them and we can't retaliate."

In addition to being on its toes, Princeton must also be aggressive physically this weekend. The Purple Eagles have a reputation for being one of the rougher teams in the league.

"They're a real chippy team," sophomore forward Melissa Tilney said. "They're very physical on the ice. Niagara plays dirty, but this means that we have to capitalize on their penalties."

One thing the Tigers were not able to improve last weekend was their number of shots on goal. Though the Tigers did come away with a win, Harvard outshot Princeton, 30-15. The Tiger defense came through, however, helping keep the Crimson scoreless until the final minutes of the third period. On Sunday, sophomore goalie Sarah Ahlquist was able to fend off 29 attempts, allowing only one goal in the final period. But with Niagara's rough style of play, such impervious defense may not come as easily for Princeton this weekend.

Offensively, the Tigers need a stronger and faster power play this weekend to get them ahead on the scoreboard. In last year's contest with Niagara, Princeton went 0-for-4 on the power play. This year's Purple Eagle squad returns almost the same roster from last year, so the Tigers must avoid falling into the same trap.

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More specifically Princeton will be looking to junior forward and leading scorer Andrea Kilbourne to help it sink the first puck. With freshman forward and starter Gretchen Anderson out for the remainder of the season with mononucleosis, however, the Tigers will be depending on an entire team effort.

"In order to take the game we have to beat them on the power play," Kampersal said. "We played a different game against Harvard — more of a [defensive] zone against their better line. We didn't get to play our regular defensive men on the end and that's what's going to be different this weekend."

The Tigers are 6-6-1 on the road this season. If they do falter in Friday's game, they will have a chance to redeem themselves Saturday in their second round of competition with Niagara.

"That's the good thing about playing a team twice in one weekend," Tilney said. "If things go wrong the first day we can always adapt on the second."