Women's hockey topped in first round of ECACHL playoffs

Good teams win all the games they should, but great teams win ones they should not. This saying held true all season for the women's hockey team which ended its season sooner than it hoped to when the Tigers were swept out of the East Coast Athletic Conference Hockey League (ECACHL) quarterfinals by Yale. The No. 4 seed Bulldogs (16-14-1 overall, 14-7-1 ECACHL) won the first game of the series, 4-3, in overtime, before defeating the No. 5 seed Tigers (16-10-5, 10-9-3), 4-2, to win their first ever home playoff series at Ingalls rink.

It was, in truth, a fitting end to a mediocre season for Princeton. Throughout the course of the season, the Tigers easily dispatched teams that were ranked lower than them but struggled for ties and close losses with teams that were ranked higher. While the team is disappointed with the result, it was still proud of its effort.

"Obviously we didn't come out on top, and we thought we could have made a run in the playoffs," sophomore forward Alison Ralph said, "but the team still played well and fought hard in both of the games."

The two losses marked the third time in two weeks that the Tigers fell to the Bulldogs. They also struggled against traditional Ivy powers Dartmouth and Harvard.

Several individuals had standout seasons for Princeton, perhaps none more critically than junior goalie Roxanne Gaudiel. Asked to replace the sizeable skates of graduated Megan Van Beusekom '04, Gaudiel quickly established herself as a brick wall between the pipes, leading the Ivy League with a 1.79 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. Not surprisingly, she was named first team All-Ivy and second team All-ECACHL.

A pair of sophomores, forward Liz Keady and defenseman Diana McCumber, earned second team All-Ivy honors.

Bulldogs growl

Princeton came closest to a win in its playoff series against Yale in the first game, when senior defenseman Katherine Maglione scored to put the Tigers up by a 3-2 score with 17 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the second period. Sophomore forward Kim Pearce and junior forward Sarah Butsch assisted on the goal, which would stand as the potential game-winner until late in the third period.

At 14:26 in the third period, however, a scramble in front of the Princeton net resulted in Maglione's hand on the puck inside the crease. For this mistake, the Tigers were assessed a delay of game penalty, which gave the Bulldogs a penalty shot. Forward Helen Resor converted on the play for her second goal of the game and knotted the score at three.

Each team had six shots in the ensuing overtime period, but it was forward Deena Caplette who found the back of the net at 15:22 to win the game for Yale.

The second game was marked by sloppy play from both teams that resulted in each side committing 15 penalties, but power-play goals played only a small role.

After a scoreless first 30 minutes, Yale struck midway through the second period, then opened up a two-goal lead in the third that the Tigers could not surmount.