Offense explodes in pair of wins

Every team has them. Games against lesser opponents that are penciled in as wins even before the season starts. Games that can't be disregarded but can't be over analyzed either. Games that should be cakewalks as long as your team plays up to its potential.

On paper these games seem to be the easiest, but if overlooked they can quickly turn into the type of losses that haunt a team for an entire season. But faced with two of these games this weekend, the Women's Hockey team (6-0-2, 6-0-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) took care of business, remaining undefeated on the season and keeping their rightful spot atop the ECACHL standings.

The weekend opened with a Friday night showdown against Union (2-3-0, 0-3-0) in Schenectady, N.Y. The game stayed close until the third period, when the Tigers took complete control. Princeton scored four goals in the period but perhaps more impressive was the play of the defense, who did not allow a single shot in the final frame.

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals from junior forward Liz Keady and senior defender Laura Watt, but Union responded in the second period. The Dutchmen made it 2-1 with nine minutes, 26 seconds left in the second period, but sophomore defender Monica Brennan scored a mere 25 seconds later to keep the two-goal lead. When Union brought it back to within one later in the period, the Tigers were again quick to respond. Junior Marykate Oakley scored her first goal of the game just 35 seconds later, and Princeton never looked back, closing the game with six unanswered goals.

Watt's four points led the Tigers, while Brennan and freshman forward Melanie Wallace each scored their first career goals. Freshman goalie Brittany Parisi, fresh off last week's victory over Brown, made 15 saves for her second victory of the year. In the end, the Tigers had outshot the Dutchmen 51-17, and received points from 12 different players. Now, that is depth.

Princeton took the ice the next night against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2-9-0, 0-3-0 ECACHL), at Baker Rink. Tied 1-1 midway through the second period, senior forward Kim Pearce was pulled down from behind on a breakaway. Instead of falling to the ice, the Princeton captain managed to find Keady trailing the play, who beat the Engineers goalie for her third goal of the weekend. A little over two minutes later, Oakley put the game away for good, scoring her team-leading eighth goal of the season and giving the Tigers a lead they would never relinquish.

Pearce finished the game with a hand in every score, netting the Tigers' first goal, and assisting on the following two.

Heading into last weekend, these two games appeared as potential roadblocks to the Tigers' hot start. Instead, Princeton took it as an opportunity to display its speed, depth and ability to lock down games and came away leaving little doubt as to whom was the better team. Looking ahead, the Tigers' schedule gets significantly harder. Next weekend they travel to New York to battle Colgate and Cornell, before coming back home the following weekend with games against Dartmouth and No. 8 Harvard.