Like many of their Princeton classmates, members of the women's hockey team will spend this weekend sweating while being jostled by a crowd, consuming mass quantities of liquid whenever they get the chance and, most importantly, trying to score.
Unlike most other Princetonians, however, these Tigers will do these things on a sheet of ice as they continue with the Eastern College Athletic Conference portion of their schedule. The St. Lawrence Saints come marching in for a doubleheader this Saturday and Sunday at Baker Rink.
This weekend will be a showcase of two of the top teams in the ECAC. Both Princeton (7-3-0 overall, 2-1-0 ECAC) and St. Lawrence (7-4-1, 2-0-0) are tied with Harvard for No. 3 in the conference. St. Lawrence is also is ranked No. 6 nationally by USCHO.com, while Princeton nips at its heels in the No. 7 spot.
"These two games this weekend are league games, so they are really important," senior forward Gretchen Anderson said. "There is a lot on the line as two wins will really help us out down the stretch when we are looking for home ice for the playoffs."
The Tigers and Saints have faced four common opponents so far this season — Northeastern, Providence, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Princeton is 3-2-0 in games against these common opponents while St. Lawrence has a 3-2-1 record. Princeton has had a much higher goal differential against these teams. In this stretch, the Tigers averaged 3.6 goals a game while only letting in an average of 1.8 goals against. On the other side, the Saints have lit the lamp three times a game while allowing 2.6 scores a game.
Many of those goals are coming from St. Lawrence's top duo of forwards — junior Rebecca Russell and senior Gina Kingsbury. Russell leads the Saints with eight goals and nine assists for a total of 17 points on the season, while Kingsbury has racked up five goals and nine assists for a total of 14 points.
The Saints generate a lot of their goals off an aggressive forecheck, which Princeton has been focusing on in practice. "They're a tough, physical team," senior defender Angela Gooldy said. "Their top player is a serious offensive threat that we need to shut down, and we've been practicing against their style of forecheck.
"They play with two forwards crashing the zone and their defenders crash on the boards so we've been practicing our defensive breakout against that type of offense," she added.
Anderson also emphasized the transition game, stressing, "It is really important that we transition well from offense to defense and that we play disciplined defensive-zone coverage."
Sending five players to crash the boards may leave the Saints vulnerable to quick breakouts, a weakness the Tigers should look to exploit this weekend. This will be particularly possible when St. Lawrence finds itself on the power play — Princeton's five shorthanded goals have proved the Tigers as adept when down a player as when on the man advantage.
"We have also been working on special teams in practice as a lot of the goals in this league are scored at uneven strength," Anderson said. "If the power play, penalty kill and defensive zone coverage aspects of our game are going strong this weekend there is no doubt in my mind that we will walk out of Baker with two league wins."
Princeton will try to build on the strength of last weekend's 8-0 rout of Boston College. The Tigers spread the wealth among seven different players in the game, gaining from the efforts of athletes not usually found on the score sheet.
Familiar faces made themselves seen as well, however, as Anderson chipped in with a trifecta of deuces — two goals and two assists to earn her second ECAC Player of the Week award.
But a different "two" looms this weekend for Anderson and the Tigers — the prospect of two games in two days with St. Lawrence. It is a common adage that familiarity breeds contempt, but it also breeds knowledge, and the Tigers will have to remain creative in their game plan if they want to beat the Saints twice in one weekend.
"The biggest challenge this weekend is playing the same team twice in a row," Gooldy said. "The second game of the weekend is always tougher and both teams adjust their play according to the flow of the previous game. If we play our game, we'll have them running around in circles."
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