Women's hockey: Plenty of good seats available

I was recently asked to be the godfather to my new niece Aliza. I didn't know how to respond, except with the requisite Marlon Brando impersonation.

You've made me an offer I can't refuse!

Any sorts of nasty words like "responsibility" floated through my head, but of course I said yes and held the little red wrinkle in my arms for a photo shoot.

Even at times like these, I think about sports. She'll grow up with her basketball daddy and her basketball uncles and probably end up in the rare breed of Minnesota kids who never pick up a hockey stick, a trade-off which I would've been all for a few years ago.

My high school girls' hockey team was horrendous — unofficially, 1-3476 in my time there. The first time I watched one of their practices, I had to check to be sure I hadn't walked in on a kindergarten league. They couldn't beat the wax figurines in a bubble hockey game. So I wrote the standard "they're trying really hard" piece for the paper, in which the coach said everything but "shoot me now," and vowed to never watch them again.

Needless to say, I didn't expect much when I arrived at Princeton and was asked to cover women's hockey freshman year. But dang, these women are good (notice the transition from "girls" to "women"). It's fun to watch. Read that again. It's fun to watch. Judging from the average of 14 fans they get at each home game, I'm guessing you all haven't realized that. No, they don't check, and no, it's not as fast as the men's game. But the women win, and when they play another team that can win, too, it gets intense.

There is a problem, though: We can't crack into that upper tier of teams. Being from Minnesota and a fan of the Timberwolves, Vikings, Twins, and Wild, I am familiar with the pains of rooting for teams that are good but have no realistic hope of winning a championship. Before the kickoff to the Vikings' final game of the season this year, a which decided their playoff fate, my brother and I shared our thoughts:

"Arizona's 3-12," I noted.

"We're screwed," he said.

"Yes."

I'm a superstitious man!

And we were. You just get that feeling rooting for these teams, that it's never your year. There's always a better team. And in women's college hockey, there's Harvard, Dartmouth, Minnesota, and Minnesota-Duluth and then there's the rest.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Or at least that's how it has been. A newbie has cracked its way into the top four: Wisconsin (18-5-3). Apparently they put the cows down long enough to learn hockey. No. 7 Mercyhurst (22-4-4) and No. 5 St. Lawrence (20-5-1) join Harvard (20-2-1) and Minnesota (21-4-1) as the only teams with 20 wins.

And then there's Princeton (16-6-0). Ranked eighth, near the bottom of the polls, a place that has been their home in recent years, beating the teams they should beat, losing to the teams that should beat them.

But this year, a breakthrough: A 6-3 thrashing of No. 2 Harvard back on Jan. 30 at Baker Rink. But they followed that effort with a loss to Brown the next night.

The Tigers may be as consistent as Jersey weather, but they are showing signs of brilliance, and not a moment too soon. Of the final seven games on their schedule, five are against top-10 teams as of Feb. 9. Granted, there are only 31 teams in Division I women's hockey, but hey...this is still the best you're going to see.

This weekend, No. 1 Dartmouth (17-4-2) visits Baker, though the Big Green will fall in the rankings after losses this weekend. Mercyhurst visits for two the next weekend. The season ends with a trip to Brown (12-7-2) and Harvard, who could be the new number one by this afternoon.

So I've come full circle on my opinion of women's hockey to the point where I actually enjoy attending. These final games will go a long way to deciding whether this team has made the leap to the next level. I implore you to go cheer them on. You may not even know it, but they just might be our best shot at sports glory for the winter season.