Women's Hockey: No. 9 Terriers will provide tough test

For many Princeton students, Thanksgiving morning will be an opportunity to catch up on much-needed sleep. For the women’s hockey team, it will be its last chance to hone its skills on the ice before they head into a challenging weekend schedule.

On Friday and Saturday, the Tigers will face No. 9 Boston University in back-to-back games at Baker Rink. Even though Princeton will take on the same opponent in both games, they promise to be anything but boring.

The Tigers have only seven out-of-conference games planned for this season. Head coach Jeff Kampersal ’92 explained that Princeton often plays against teams that aren’t in the ECAC twice in the same weekend.

“It’s easier for teams to come in and play twice so they don’t have to find a travel partner,” he said. “Most of all, these games are special because we beat up on each other in the league, and it’s good to see some fresh faces.”

The games against BU will bring more than just novelty to Baker Rink — they present a serious challenge. Last weekend, Princeton fell to No. 7 Cornell in a frustrating 1-0 game — and, as Kampersal pointed out, Cornell is ranked just ahead of BU.

“The games this weekend are going to be equally difficult [as the game against Cornell], so I think the fact that we’ve played good competition and have been under some adversity recently will help us,” Kampersal said.

The Tigers are excited to tackle a worthy team. Senior captain Stephanie Denino elaborated that BU’s lineup is very similar to Princeton’s.

“I think we’ve played them three years now, and they’re very much like us,” Denino said. “They’re a fast team. What’s especially fun is that they’re ranked more highly than we are — we need to constantly challenge ourselves. We’re really looking for two big wins here this weekend.”

Specifically, BU poses a threat because it has a balance of talented individuals in different positions.

“They have very good [defenders], they have good forwards. They have a really good forward in Jenelle Kohanchuk,” Kampersal said.

“We played Harvard, Dartmouth and Cornell right before Colgate and BU will be similar to those teams,” he added.

During practice, the Tigers have been working on several aspects of their play.

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“We need to make sure we’re efficient on the power play. Also, I think we definitely want to be a team that always breaks the puck out well,” Denino said. “Additionally — and this is a key word that always comes up — we need to execute. We need to make sure we’re bearing down in front of the net and getting that puck in,” Denino said.

Kampersal reiterated the importance of practice. After all, the team will be on campus for nearly the whole Thanksgiving recess, and even winter break for them is essentially shortened to 10 days. He explained that the team in practice has been working on vital skills, echoing some of Denino’s points.

“We’ve been working on making a power play, a penalty kill, and just our competitiveness,” he said.

One of the main things that Princeton focuses on in competition is its intensity. Last Saturday, the team came away with a win against Colgate, but many players felt that they had actually maintained a more steady effort in the loss to Cornell the day before.

The Big Red scored in the first three minutes of play, and it dominated in shots taken. In the second and third periods, the Tigers regained their poise, but nevertheless, a goal didn’t materialize for them.

“It is funny to think that you can battle for a full 60 and not get the win. And, on paper, we’re the kind of team that beats Colgate, but in the league it can go either way. It’s a question of who will show up that day and who will fight for it. That’s part of what’s great about playing in the ECAC,” Denino said.

Most importantly, she added, “We still need to focus on being consistent throughout and not having lows and highs.”

This weekend, Princeton looks to execute strategies that have worked in previous games.

“It’s the same for us: We try to throw a few wrinkles into every game that we play and just come out and work and get pucks into the net. We have to work hard and reward ourselves a little bit more for our efforts,” Kampersal said.

During this holiday break, the Tigers will hopefully reward themselves with two important wins. Even the most tired of Princeton students would concede that two wins are probably more satisfying than your standard pumpkin pie.