Talented women's hockey must face toughest ECAC competition in years

Head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 may have his best team in six seasons as coach of Princeton women's hockey, a good sign as his team begins its quest to win the Eastern College Athletic Conference title for the first time in his tenure.

But this may also be the hardest year to accomplish that feat.

Four ECAC teams — No. 2 Harvard, No. 4 Dartmouth, No. 5 St. Lawrence, and No. 6 Brown — are all ranked among the top teams in the country by USCHO.com, so this talented but unranked Tiger team that includes last year's top three leading scorers and an Olympic silver medalist isn't even among the favorites in its own conference.

Princeton is coming off a 15-11-3 season overall, and a respectable 10-6-0 in the ECAC, which was good enough to tie with Harvard for fourth place. The Crimson beat the Tigers in a best of three playoff in the first round of the ECAC tournament to end Princeton's season.

But the hockey conference has a different look this year. The ECAC had been split into East and North Divisions. Teams from the East, however, broke up into two new conferences this season — the Hockey East and the College Hockey America — leaving the North Division, in which the Tigers compete, on its own.

Teams from last year's ECAC divisions make up eight of the 12 teams receiving votes for the top ten in USCHO.com's most recent poll.

In other words, it is no easy road to a conference title. Dartmouth (13-3-0 in the ECAC last year), St. Lawrence (12-3-1) and Brown (12-3-1) all return with high expectations. Harvard, the team that had the worst record of these four last year, received one first place vote after beating No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth and losing by a goal to the undefeated and top-ranked Golden Gophers.

So even with Kampersal's best shot in six years, it still may be only good enough for fifth in the conference.

The rest of the league does not seem to pose any threat. The Red Raiders (5-5), Cornell (0-3-1), Vermont (2-9-1), and Yale (1-5) are all .500 or worse, and have just started the tough part of their schedules — the conference games.

The Tigers are 4-2-0 overall, 2-0 in the ECAC after easy wins over Colgate and Cornell. All four of their wins have come at Baker Rink and both losses came on the road against No. 8 New Hampshire this weekend.

Junior forwards Gretchen Anderson (25 goals, 12 assists last year), Lisa Rasmussen (10, 20) and Susan Hobson (12, 14) — the Tigers' top scorers — are all back.

So is senior forward Andrea Kilbourne, who took last season off to play for the U.S. Olympic team in Salt Lake City and looks to add a spark to Kampersal's offense. Kilbourne was Princeton's leading scorer two years in a row before her time off.

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There is yet more Tiger firepower. The leading scorer this season is sophomore forward Becky Stewart, who has two goals and six assists. Kilbourne is second and sophomore forward April Brown is third.

Anderson, who has not played this season, is recovering from a broken wrist and hopes to return soon.

Kampersal, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon, has added to last year's hodgepodge of goalies. Freshman Roxanne Gaudiel, who has already been ECAC Rookie of the Week once this season, joins senior Sarah Ahlquist and junior Megan Van Beusekom in net. Van Beusekom has emerged as a top option, playing four of the team's six games, but Gaudiel and Ahlquist will be important backups as the season rolls on.

Princeton's schedule looks familiar. They play each ECAC team twice, with non-conference games against former ECAC North teams and other traditional opponents like Mercyhurst.

It is too early to tell how things will unfold, but Princeton's 0-2 record against hockey's elite this season is troubling. With the brutal competition in the ECAC, Princeton will need to bring its best game to the ice every night.

And this team may be perfect for that task.