Women's Hockey: Princeton falls short at Syracuse

The women’s ice hockey team ended this past weekend on a heartbreaking note, losing the second of two close games to Syracuse thanks to the efforts of Orange forward Lisa Mullan. Mullan scored the only goal of the game with just one minute left in overtime, leading the Orange to its second victory in as many days over Princeton.

Princeton (7-8-1, 5-4-1 ECAC Hockey) opened the series well Friday, taking an early lead on a goal by senior forward Julie Flynn just moments into the game. Syracuse forward Stefanie Marty evened the game at one apiece in the last minute of the first period.

The Tigers played a strong second period and took a 3-1 lead just a dozen minutes in thanks to goals from sophomore forward Heather Landry and freshman forward Kelly Cooke. Marty scored a few moments later, and the period ended at 3-2.

In the third period, the Orange took control, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of the period and never looking back for a 4-3 victory.

The second game was even closer, with neither team able to break through during regulation. Sophomore goalie Rachel Weber played a strong game, keeping the Orange from the net for most of the game with 18 saves, but she was matched on the other end by Syracuse goalie Lucy Shoedel. Despite taking 27 shots, the Tigers were never able to crack Shoedel, and the game went into an extended overtime that ended with Mullan’s shot at three minutes, 51 seconds, giving the ’Cuse the weekend sweep of the Tigers.

Junior defender Sasha Sherry noted that the losses were more due to the Tigers’ mistakes than anything else.

“In the game on Friday, we played great on the power play, but had difficulty with our five-on-five play and our penalty kill,” Sherry said. “Three of Syracuse’s four goals came while we were short-handed. We were caught out of position. Syracuse made us pay for our mental lapses … When we were up three to one, we became too comfortable. We did not protect the lead as we should have, and this is something we will learn from.”

These mental lapses have been one of the main problems in the women’s hockey team’s recent skid, which stretches back to Nov. 28, when No. 8 Boston University scored on a rebound in the final minutes of the third period to take the 3-2 victory.

Yet there is still hope for this squad, which has brought back four of its top five scorers from last year, when the team closed the 2008-09 season winning 11 of their last 13 games.

The team definitely saw improvement from Friday’s game to Saturday’s, identifying organization as one of its biggest problems early on.

“In Friday’s game, I would say we lacked hunger and sense of purpose,” senior defender and captain Stephanie Denino said. “Though two power-play goals were a big positive for us, our five-on-five play and penalty kill were ultimately disorganized, and we found ourselves running around and not always making smart hockey plays. Saturday, we turned it around and understood that the key to our success would be constant pressure, which worked well for us, both on the forecheck and the penalty kill.”

Despite the losses, the women still have a considerable portion of the season left to climb up the ECAC ladder, and Denino said the team did plenty of things right this weekend.

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“The effort and sense of purpose we displayed on Saturday is something we must keep in mind and put forth as our new standard,” she said. “It should most certainly not be viewed as the exception.”

The Tigers’ next chance to show that sense of purpose will come Dec. 31, when the women travel to Quinnipiac for their last game of the calendar year.