Big Green and Crimson have Tigers feeling red

Two road losses last weekend capped a disappointing Fall Break for the women's ice hockey team. In games at Harvard and Dartmouth, the Tigers led going into the third period, 2-1 and 3-2, respectively. But the Crimson and the Big Green came back aggressively in crucial moments, scoring two goals apiece to stun Princeton. On Oct. 26, Princeton put away Clarkson 3-2. The next day, however, St. Lawrence got up early on the Tigers and never relinquished the lead, winning 3-1.

"It was a disappointing weekend. We're going to regroup," senior forward Marykate Oakley said. "We're going to get back to basics and work on things that need cleaning up," she added.

Against Harvard on Saturday, junior goalie Kristen Young played extremely well, finishing with 38 saves, but two two-man advantages killed the Tigers. Princeton (1-3-2 overall, 1-3-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference) seemed to be on its way to an upset of the No. 7 Crimson (2-0, 2-0) but could not hold on in the last minutes of the third period.

Nine minutes, 2 seconds into the third period, Harvard's Caitlin Cahow tied the game at 2-2 on a two-man advantage. Just 36 seconds later, Lizzie Keady, who earlier had put the Tigers ahead 2-1, committed a tripping penalty to give the Crimson another two-man advantage. Harvard capitalized on the mistake, with Sarah Vaillancourt scoring the game-winner 41 seconds into the power play. Junior forward Annie Greenwood, who had scored the first goal of the game for the Tigers, came ever so close to tying the game in the final seconds after Princeton pulled its goalie for a six-on-four advantage, but she was unable to connect.

The Tigers could not hold on against Dartmouth (3-0-1, 2-0-0) either. Despite the stellar performance of freshman defender Sasha Sherry, who had three points, Princeton blew the lead in the third period. The Big Green scored twice in 2:01 to win the game on goals by Amy Cobb and Jenna Cunningham.

Princeton had jumped out to an early lead when senior forward Brittany Salmon scored on an assist from Sherry, but the Big Green tied up the game at 1-1 when Cobb scored on a power play.

Dartmouth added to its total with a goal from Maggie Kennedy. But with an assist from Oakley, Sherry scored her first career goal to tie the game 2-2 at the first intermission. During the second period, senior forward Sonja Novak redirected a pass from Sherry into the goal to put the Tigers up 3-2. Unfortunately for the Tigers, all was lost in the fateful third period. Dartmouth outshot Princeton 36-15 on the game.

"Obviously any loss is tough, but we beat ourselves. We took penalties when we shouldn't have. We were in situations where we were in control [against Harvard and Dartmouth]," Oakley said.

On Oct. 27, the Tigers were defeated by No. 4 St. Lawrence (6-2-0). The Saints were up 2-0 only 10 minutes into the game, buoyed by goals from Chelsea Grills and Kerri Wallace. They cruised from there, scoring another goal at the beginning of the second period to make the score 3-0. Salmon scored to make it 3-1 at the beginning of the third period, but the Tigers could not gather any more momentum, despite outshooting the Saints 25-24.

Probably the only bright spot this week for the Tigers was their 3-2 victory over Clarkson (7-2-1). Oakley had three points in that game, with two goals and one assist. Princeton jumped out to an early lead on a breakaway when Oakley passed to teammate Salmon, who slid the puck past Golden Knights goalie Eve Grandmont-Berube.

Princeton took that lead through the first intermission, but Clarkson evened up the score with seven seconds left in the second period on a goal by Kimberly McKenney. The beginning of the third period was wild, with three goals scored in a span of 9:09. Oakley scored an even-strength goal on a one-timer from Salmon to put the Tigers ahead 2-1. Clarkson evened the game up quickly to make it 2-2, but Oakley scored again, this time on a power-play goal. The shot was deflected twice, first by Greenwood and then by Oakley, whose score put Princeton up for good.

"There are always positives," Oakley said. "We generated offense in many situations. We have a lot of potential. As long as we keep working hard and doing the simple things right, we can go far."