W. hockey conquers ice rink, tourism in Europe

The women's hockey team just can't get enough of each other.

The Princeton icesters headed into Winter Break 9-5-0 after a two-game sweep of Findlay in Ohio, then spent only 12 days apart before hopping on a plane for Europe for an eight-day tour of Germany and Prague that ended up being more about culture than hockey.

The Tigers left on a jet plane and touched down in Munich on Dec. 26 to start their four-day tour of Germany, with two games of hockey snuggled amidst the sightseeing.

"The first team we played wasn't very good," senior forward Susan Hobson admitted. "The score was something like 10 or 12 to nothing."

Still, the win was not a complete joke for a team that had been off the ice and at home tempted by cookies and chocolates for a fortnight. The larger European ice surface seemed to have no effect on the Tigers.

"We were just coming back from vacation, so it was good to get our legs back," Holmes said.

The team left Munich after a short one-day, two-night stay to head to the medieval town of Bad Tolz near the Alps in southern Germany.

Then the women traveled to Dachau, in the Bavaria region of southern Germany, the site of the first Nazi concentration camp where at least 32,000 inmates died.

From there it was off to Memmingen, also in the Bavaria region and a manufacturing center and rail junction. There, Princeton played its second European team, which was comprised of about half the German national team and one familiar face — former teammate Nikola Holmes '03.

"[This game] was a little closer," Hobson said. "But in the end it was about 9-3. We blew them away in the third period."

Memmingen is also a winter resort, and the Tigers had a little office recreation time, spending much of the morning before their game against the Holmes-led German national team on the ski slopes.

"None of us ski, so it was like the 'Gong Show' out there," Hobson said.

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It was like the "Gong Show" on the ice, too.

After their sweep through southern Germany, the travel load calmed down a bit for the Tigers, who visited Prague, the beautiful capital city of the Czech Republic, for a four-day stay.

As Brian, the talking dog from the syndicated television cartoon show "The Family Guy," once said, "New York is like Prague sans the whimsy," and perhaps the women's hockey team would now agree.

And the whimsy on the hockey rink got even more out of control.

"The team we played there wasn't very good," Hobson said. "Megan [Van Beusekom] and Roxanne [Gaudiel], our two goalies, were playing defense together. We had some girls who shot right shooting with a left-handed stick. It was that bad."

Princeton celebrated the New Year in Prague, jet-lagged and ready for their next big celebration: the eve after Dean's Date.

It was a welcome break from the pressures of American hockey for the team. Hobson can't even remember scores or the names of the teams the Tigers faced, which shows that the team's focus was on their surroundings during the trip.

"Even if I could remember their names," Hobson quipped, "I couldn't pronounce them."

A sweep in Ohio

After two tough losses to St. Lawrence on their home ice and a long bus ride to Ohio, women's hockey was salivating for a win back on Dec. 12.

They got what they wished for in a weekend sweep of Findlay (6-9-1 overall), Dec. 13-14, winning the opener Saturday, 4-1, and the Sunday contest, 4-2.

Princeton underclassmen bolstered the Saturday win as freshman forwards Laura Watt and Kim Pearce each tallied a goal and an assist, and sophomore forward Heather Jackson also added a goal.

Van Beusekom, a senior, made 29 saves for the win.

Findlay scored both the first and last goals in the Sunday rematch, but the Tigers scored four times in between to record the two-goal win. Senior forward Gretchen Anderson scored two times in the game.

Gaudiel, a sophomore, needed only 12 saves for the win.

Princeton heads on a less exciting road trip this weekend, taking on Cornell and Colgate as they resume their conference schedule and try to climb in this nation's rankings.

At least their spot is secure atop the German ranks.