January saw a turnaround for the women’s ice hockey team, which posted 1-0 and 4-3 wins as well as a 3-3 tie this month after a lackluster, winless December. Now the Tigers face their longest break from competition of the season and will come back from Intersession to a home stretch of eight straight league games.
Princeton (9-9-3 overall, 7-4-3 ECAC Hockey) is currently tied with Quinnipiac for second in the conference, though anything can happen in the ECAC with half a season left to play. At the end of the month, the Tigers will travel to battle Union (4-17-1, 0-9-1) and Rensselaer (7-9-5, 4-3-3). It is Princeton's second meeting of the season against both teams.
Though Princeton will take a 20-day break from competition, Union and Rensselaer will compete every weekend this month, which means the Tigers have to stay sharp. Head coach Jeff Kampersal ’92 said he is optimistic that the team can maintain its competitiveness.
“It’s almost like we have three seasons, the way the exams fall,” he said. “When you get going and you get on a roll, sometimes it’s tough to break. Our kids, when they broke for the holidays, came back and were in good shape. This time, it’s a little bit longer, but they’ll come back and practice when they’re not studying.”
“They take their school seriously, but they also take their hockey seriously,” he added.
When the Tigers went up against Union at the beginning of the season, Princeton notched a decisive 6-3 win over the Dutchwomen, as they took control of the game in the second period and never looked back. As Kampersal noted, however, Princeton may see more of a challenge from Union this time around.
“Union is very much improved. They have a good coach, and they’ve been working hard,” Kampersal said. “They took Clarkson to the end [in a 3-1 loss for Union]. They took St. Lawrence right up to the end [in another 3-1 loss]. I know this is practically a cliche, but in the ECAC, anybody can beat anybody. If you go in and play a mistake-free game, you have a good chance of winning.”
The day after the Union game, the Tigers will face Rensselaer, which will certainly be a formidable opponent. In October, Princeton tied with the Engineers, 2-2. As Kampersal points out, Princeton has not been successful in the last three meetings against Rensselaer. Not only do the teams have similar records, but the Engineers’ style of play resembles that of the Tigers.
“They’re very similar to us,” Kampersal said. “They’re quick, they pressure the puck, and they make the most of their scoring opportunities. Last year, it was like looking in a mirror — both teams were very close, and it just comes down to executing better. Now, we’re all fighting for points in the standings, so it’ll be good competition,” he added.
As they study for exams, team members will take a different approach to practice, senior defender and captain Stephanie Denino explained.
“This time of year is always a little tricky, but in no way do we plan on letting this interrupt our stride; we will still be practicing on a fairly normal schedule. Because the coaches won’t be coming on the ice with us, we have the habit of having players plan a practice each, and this allows us to work hard [and] see new drills while also having fun,” Denino said in an e-mail.
Though the Tigers have seen an upswing in positive results lately, they still need to improve in certain key areas.
“I think consistency is something that we always need to work on. Recently, we’ve had some consistent efforts, minus the Northeastern game, where we couldn’t beat their goaltending. We need to work on our 'D'-zone, tighten up in that area, and we also have to work on just executing. We’re certainly generating a lot of shots, but we have to put more quality shots on,” Kampersal said.
Denino gave a similar assessment of the team’s ceaseless efforts toward greater consistency.
“Although we’ve said it time and time again, we need a more consistent performance out of everyone if we want to make big things happen,” she said. “This past weekend, we showed a lot of grit and pride, and this is something we want to keep doing.”
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