Home-and-home split for women's hockey vs. Yale

Women's hockey had a mixed Valentine's Day weekend in its home-and-home against Yale.

On Friday, the Tigers sent a sweet little valentine to Yale, beating the Elis, 6-2. The next day, though, a Yale goalie named Love put an arrow through Princeton's heart, and the Tigers lost the game, 3-1.

After splitting this weekend, Princeton's record stands at 15-7-2 overall (8-4-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference).

The Tigers, currently ranked No. 8 in the national poll, got the weekend off to a good start when senior forward Andrea Kilbourne found the net six minutes, 37 seconds into the first period of Friday's game at Baker Rink.

That early statement set the tone for the rest of the Princeton-dominated game. At the first intermission, the Tigers only led 1-0, but had taken ten shots to Yale's three.

Just over four minutes into the second period, Princeton got things going again with a goal from freshman defender Chrissy Norwich, assisted by freshmen forwards Sarah Shea and Sarah Butsch.

Yale put up its first goal of the night shortly thereafter, but this did not deter the Tigers. Freshman forward Sarah Greer added another goal at 5:35, and then Shea scored off a pass from junior forward Lisa Rasmussen to bring the score at the end of the period to 4-1.

Kilbourne scored her second goal of the night 12:37 into the third period, and senior defender Annamarie Holmes sealed the win at 13:39.

It was the Tigers' third straight win with six goals.

But it wasn't just the offense that was on top of things; junior goalie Megan Van Beusekom stopped 16 of 18 shots and the defense blocked nine.

The next day Princeton traveled to New Haven, Conn., for a rematch with Yale on its home ice, Ingalls Rink.

The Tigers outshot the Elis, 38-19, but Yale goalie Sarah Love stopped 37 of those shots, preventing Princeton from bringing home another win. Princeton's senior goalie Sarah Ahlquist made 16 saves.

Taking liberties

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In contrast to Friday's game in which the Tigers came out scoring from the beginning, Saturday's game was scoreless at the end of the second period. Senior defender Angela Gooldy finally got the puck past Love 9:21 into the second period, assisted by junior forward Gretchen Anderson and Kilbourne.

At the end of the second period Princeton led the Elis, 1-0.

Yale scored three times on five shots in the third period to turn things around and beat the Tigers, 3-1. The Elis' first goal came 6:20 into the third when Lisa Jacque scored on an assist from Deanna Caplette to tie things up 1-1.

Natalie Babony knocked in another less than a minute later to win the game, assisted by Nicole Symington and Suzanne McGoey. Deanna McDevitt added an insurance goal with only eight seconds left in the game.

"We played pretty well on the second day too," Kilbourne said. "We didn't get too many bounces, and we played overly confident in the D-zone.

"We took liberties that we shouldn't take against teams that good."

Going into this weekend, Princeton was fourth in the conference, and Yale was sixth. With the weekend split the standings remain the same.

Princeton's next challenge will be a steep one. The Tigers travel to Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday to face No. 1 Harvard.

The last time Princeton met the Crimson, Harvard won, 5-2. This weekend, Harvard met with No. 6 St. Lawrence. The Crimson tied the Saints, 3-3, in their first game, then won the second game, 6-1, to bring their record to 21-1-1 (10-0-1 ECAC).