Women's Hockey: Tie, win elevate Tigers in ECAC

The women’s hockey team returned as a stronger team after having a productive winter break on campus, posting a 2-2 tie and a 1-0 win in a home-and-home series against Quinnipiac last weekend before falling to No. 9 Northeastern, 4-0.

Last Thursday’s game in Hamden, Conn., against Quinnipiac (7-7-6 overall, 4-3-5 ECAC Hockey) saw the Bobcats open up scoring with back-to-back goals after a scoreless first period. The Tigers responded early in the third period when sophomore forward Charissa Stadnyk capitalized on a power play with help from sophomore forwards Julie Johnson and Heather Landry. Senior forward Melanie Wallace followed up with a score of her own with one minute left in regulation, redirecting a puck shot by freshman forward Alex Kinney and lifting it over the head of Quinnipiac goalie Victoria Vigilanti to knot the score at two. Neither team managed to gain the upper hand in overtime, and the game ended in a 2-2 draw.

The first period of Saturday’s game was reminiscent of the previous matchup’s, as neither the Tigers nor the Bobcats could find the net. The game remained scoreless until sophomore forward Danielle DiCesare fired a shot past Vigilanti. Quinnipiac forward Kallie Flor led a comeback effort for the Bobcats, but freshman goalie Cassie Seguin, the reigning ECAC Goaltender of the Week, stopped all 15 attempts for her third shutout of the season. In the final minute, the Bobcats pulled their goalie in an attempt to tie the score, but once again the Tigers stifled the Quinnipiac attack.

These two games were crucial to Princeton starting 2010 on a positive note, as it heads into some critical games in the upcoming weeks.

From the beginning of the season, the team has consistently talked about playing hard the entire game and not giving up, and this is not a sentiment they are giving up on.

“We played a full 60 minutes,” junior defender Sasha Sherry said. “We worked hard and we got rewarded.”

There was a also noticeable difference with the team as a whole.

“We changed as a team from Thursday to Saturday,” Sherry said. “We had the fight, the passion and the purpose on Saturday.”

Princeton successfully outshot the Bobcats 61-34 on the weekend, and the statistic serves as testament to the Tigers’ consistent play.

“Thursday’s game was just a replay of the majority of our losses in which we didn’t play with purpose and got outworked,” Sherry said. “We did the little things right on Saturday, and that is what we have been focusing on over break.”

“We took a step back and worked on more of the basics,” she added. “If we keep our game simple and make the small, important plays, we will put ourselves in a good position to win.”

Seguin’s play was also a key component of the Tigers’ successful performance in Saturday’s game.

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“Cassie has been stellar for us in net on a consistent basis. She deserves the recognition. She has been very focused, and her performance in net shows it,” Sherry said. “We will rely on both our goalies heavily as sources of strength and consistency as we continue the season.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the positive swing in momentum ended last night when they fell 4-0 at home to Northeastern. Three first-period goals registered within a six-and-a-half minute span practically put the game out of the Tigers’ reach from the get-go, and the fourth goal, which came at the tail end of the third frame, closed the deal for Northeastern. Despite the setback, the silver lining for Princeton was that it forced Northeastern goalie Leah Sulyma to make 52 saves, showing that the potent attack on display in Saturday’s game did not disappear.

Looking forward, the Tigers will try to refocus on the basics as they prepare to face No. 5 Harvard this Friday night at Baker Rink.