Women's hockey has bipolar weekend against St. Lawrence

With third place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference at stake, women's hockey had motivation aplenty headed into its weekend set at No. 5 St. Lawrence. But the team came out with a head-scratching two-sided performance after an impressive 3-1 victory Friday and a near-embarrassing 5-1 defeat Saturday.

Friday evening No. 10 Princeton (7-3-2 overall, 3-1-0 ECAC) looked like a team that can compete in this loaded conference, scoring two first-period goals and never letting the Saints (8-4-2, 4-2-0) sniff a lead.

Senior siblings started the weekend on a good note for the Tigers. Defender Annamarie Holmes found the net at six minutes, 26 seconds of the first period from a tough angle just off the right point, and her sister — forward Nikola Holmes — assisted on the goal, a connection that goes back to the 80's on the frozen ponds of Minnesota.

"The winger was crashing down on the other side and [St. Lawrence's] goalie was cheating a little," Nikola Holmes said. "She was expecting Annamarie to pass."

Just over a minute later, senior forward Andrea Kilbourne — who has scored all four of her goals this season in ECAC play — doubled the lead with Princeton's 11th power-play goal of the season with assists from junior forward Gretchen Anderson and Annamarie Holmes.

Princeton was not satisfied yet. Freshman Tarah Clark added another goal five minutes into the second, assisted by junior defender Angela Gooldy, and suddenly St. Lawrence found themselves down three goals on their home ice.

Chera Marshall scored for the Saints to cut the lead to 3-1 at 16:24 and finally break through junior goalie Megan Van Beusekom's stone wall.

St. Lawrence was inspired by the Marshall goal and responded by unleashing 23 shots on Van Beusekom in the third period alone, three more than the Tigers managed for the entire game. But the Princeton netminder made her case for Player of the Week, stopping all 23 shots and preserving the win. Saturday, however, was not so positive for the Tigers. Five different Saints registered goals, four of them in the second period, as St. Lawrence rolled to a 5-1 win.

Marshall scored her second goal of the weekend, and her team-leading eighth of the year, on a power play midway through the first. Junior forward Lisa Rasmussen answered for Princeton six minutes later, with assists from sophomore forward Becky Stewart and Nikola Holmes, to even the score.

But when the second period started, the blades came off the Tigers' skates. Kelly Sage scored three minutes in to give St. Lawrence the lead back, then teammate Gina Kingsbury joined the party with her sixth goal of the year at 8:34. Princeton had a power play chance a minute later, but Shannon Smith took care of that with a shorthanded goal at 9:36. With thirty seconds left in a period that was 20 minutes too long for the Tigers, Ricki-Lee Doyle made the wound a little bigger, adding her fourth goal of the year.

"We gave it away with three bad turnovers," head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said of the plays that led to some of St. Lawrence's second-period scoring. "Megan [Van Beusekom] played well, but she didn't get much help."

"We broke down in the second period," Nikola Holmes said. "We had a few major breakdowns, they capitalized and scored on their opportunities. Everyone's frustrated because we know how good we are."

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Van Beusekom made 13 saves in the first two periods. Senior Sarah Ahlquist played the third for Princeton and recorded eight saves. Rachel Barrie made 26 saves for the Saints.

The Tigers won Friday despite being outshot 37-23 but were hammered Saturday despite outshooting St. Lawrence 27-26.

"We played well for five periods [this weekend]," Kampersal said. "We won four and tied one. We just had one bad one."

Princeton now turns its focus to a pair of non-conference games at Baker Rink against Ohio State next weekend. The Tigers have yet to lose at home, going 5-0-1 in their first six games in the friendly confines. Their next ECAC action comes Jan. 10-11 when they take on Brown and Harvard at Baker.