W. ice hockey pulls out OT win vs. Maine on Anderson's clutch goal

When dreaming up destinations to spend their weekends, most Princeton students would not readily think of Northeastern's Matthews Arena. The women's ice hockey team stretched out its time there to the limits this weekend, however, playing two overtime games against Maine and Northeastern. Both games ended with a score of 3-2, with the Tigers coming out on top against Maine and falling short to Northeastern.

Princeton (3-1-0) first took on Maine (1-5-2) on Saturday. The two teams skated to a draw through the first period. The Tigers peppered Black Bear netminder Lara Smart with 12 shots in the frame while giving up seven, but they were unable to break through.

Princeton finally got one on the board three minutes, 13 seconds into the second period. Junior forward Becky Stewart took a pass from junior defender Katharine Maglione to give the Tigers the 1-0 lead.

The Tigers held the lead throughout the second, continuing to challenge Smart and keep up the intensity. In what would become a theme this weekend, however, Princeton let the Black Bears back into the game with 52 seconds remaining in the period, sending the teams back into the locker rooms tied.

The third period echoed the script of the previous two: Princeton put up far more shots than Maine, but was continuously stymied by Smart. The Tigers out-shot Maine in the game, 34-19, and Anderson made good on one of those shots when she tallied her third goal of the season at 14:21 of the period.

"The first one was a two-on-one with [senior forward] Lisa Rasmussen," Anderson said. "I came up the left wing and she slid it over to me on the top of the circles and I just took a slap-shot and put it about six inches above the goalie's pad. She gave me a perfect pass on that play."

But the Black Bears would claw their way back into the game once again. With only 1:43 standing between Princeton and victory, Karen Droog put the puck past sophomore goalie Roxanne Gaudiel, who was making her first start of the season, to send the contest into overtime.

Seniors Anderson and Rasmussen were there to save the day again for the Tigers, though.

Rasmussen collected the puck in her own zone and fed Anderson a breakout pass on the left wing. Anderson zoomed down the wing and moved her way in on Smart, converting the shot at 2:37 to seal the win for Princeton.

Though the Tigers earned the victory, Anderson saw a weakness in their proclivity to give up a lead late in the period.

"I think our [defensive] zone coverage was not up to par this weekend," Anderson said. "We had great offensive output and really got a lot of shots on net, but we broke down a little bit in the d-zone."

The same problem was apparent in Princeton's 3-2 overtime loss to Northeastern (5-1-2) on Sunday. The Tigers outshot the Huskies, 43-24, but kept falling behind when Northeastern was able to capitalize on defensive breakdowns.

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"Overall, our main problem was being able to score," Rasmussen said. "We had a lot of offensive action but not that many quality shots on net. Especially on Sunday, we spent a lot of time down in their zone but never managed to actually put a puck in their net. We weren't able to get very many quality shots off. In the d-zone we had a hard time, every mistake we made the other team capitalized on."

Northeastern took an early lead only 2:38 into the first period, but Princeton was able to battle back and tie it up when Anderson scored her fifth goal of the season while on a power play later in the first.

After a scoreless second period in which Princeton outshot Northeastern, 13-3, the Huskies again took the lead with a rebound goal in front of the Princeton net.

The score remained at 2-1 until head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 pulled senior goalie Megan van Beusekom for an extra attacker with just under two minutes remaining. When Northeastern's Crystal Rochon got sent to the penalty box for slashing 20 seconds later, the Tigers had a six-on-four advantage. A wide-open Susan Hobson exploited this imbalance, smacking in a rebound with 17.3 seconds remaining. Northeastern found the back of the net at 2:51 of overtime, though, killing Princeton's comeback hopes and handing the Tigers their first loss of the season.