Women's Hockey: Princeton rebounds for weekend split

This weekend, the No. 10 women’s ice hockey team won one and lost one at Baker Rink. On Friday night, the Tigers (6-3-1 overall, 5-2-1 ECAC Hockey) fell 1-0 to No. 7 Cornell (6-3-1, 6-1-1) before rebounding with a 3-2 win Saturday afternoon over Colgate (2-9-3, 1-4-3).

On Friday, the Big Red scored what proved to be the game-winning goal two minutes, 57 seconds into the first period. Cornell forward Catherine White corralled a rebound off sophomore netminder Rachel Weber’s pads, dragged the puck across the goal and pushed it past Weber into the right side of the net. Cornell’s quick start set the pace for the first period, which the Big Red dominated, tallying 12 shots to Princeton’s one.

“The Cornell game was a battle,” sophomore forward Paula Romanchuk said. “They’ve been playing really well lately, so we knew it would be a close game. We didn’t have a great start, and they took advantage of that and got an early goal. They had us on our heels the first period, and we were lucky to get out of it down only one goal. Our goalie that night, Rachel Weber, came up big and kept us in the game.”

Weber stopped 25 shots while Big Red netminder Amanda Mazzotta stopped 14 to earn her fourth shutout of the year.

“To have Cornell score so early in the game was both frustrating and motivating,” senior forward Julie Flynn said. “It’s always hard to be down right away, but at the same time, it forced us to fight back and to play hard for the rest of the game.”

The Tigers found their spark in the second period and skated end-to-end with the Big Red for the remainder of the game.

“The second and third periods were fast-paced. We had a lot of good scoring opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize,” Flynn added.

In the second period, Cornell took nine shots to Princeton’s eight, and in the third, the teams had five shots apiece. Neither team converted on power-play opportunities: Cornell was zero-for-two, and Princeton was zero-for-three.

Saturday afternoon, Princeton and Colgate traded goals in the first and second periods before an unanswered goal by the Tigers early in the third earned them the win.

Princeton scored first when senior forward Melanie Wallace put the puck past Colgate netminder Lisa Plenderleith at 6:57 in the first period. Four minutes later, Raiders sophomore defender Amanda Kirwan scored on freshman goalie Cassie Seguin, tying the game at one.

In the second period, a Colgate power play resulted in back-to-back goals. First, Romanchuk scored, giving the Tigers a 2-1 edge at 17:23.

“[Freshman forward] Corey Stearns made a nice play to pick up the puck and get out of our zone fast,” Romanchuk said. “Then she made a perfect pass over to me for a breakaway, and I was able to find the back of the net.”

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One minute, 22 seconds later, Colgate’s forward Katie Stewart equalized the score.

Colgate out-shot Princeton 10-9 in the first period and 11-5 in the second. Yet Princeton gained the shooting edge 14-3 in the third period, which allowed it to take the lead and hold onto it until the end. Sophomore forward Danielle DiCesare scored the game-winner 4:53 into the third period when she found the puck open in front of the net and put it in the back of the cage. Romanchuk and senior defender and captain Stephanie Denino were credited with assists.

Seguin made 22 stops over the course of the game, while the Raiders’ Plenderleith had 25 saves. The Tigers were zero-for-four on power plays while Colgate was one-for-two.

“Everyone was happy about our win, but we felt we didn’t put forward our best effort, so it was bittersweet,” DiCesare said.

The Tigers remain at home this coming weekend, where they face Boston University at 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Romanchuk said that the team hopes to play with consistent intensity for all three periods of both games.

“Next weekend, our games against BU [Boston University] will be tough again, and we need to be ready to execute and play well from the start,” she said. “This year, we’ve really tried to focus on playing our best for the full 60 minutes, so we need to set the tempo from the start and capitalize on our opportunities.”