In its last two regular-season road games, the women’s hockey team left an impression of being far less threatening than “Snowmageddon.”
Princeton (10-11-4 overall, 8-6-4 ECAC Hockey) had been tied for third in league standings, looking like a viable contender for one of the four home-ice playoff spots, but after a winless weekend, the Tigers fell to sixth place.
On Friday, Princeton dropped a 4-3 decision to Colgate (9-17-4, 5-9-4), as the team failed to overcome early mistakes.
The next day, Cornell (11-8-6, 10-2-6) wiped out the Tigers in a 6-0 shutout. Cornell now stands at second in ECAC standings and tied with Harvard at the top of the Ivy League — on track for its first Ivy title since 1999.
On Friday, Princeton traveled to central New York riding a four-game unbeaten streak.
To top it off, the Tigers were 19-3-2 all-time against Colgate and 8-1-1 in games played at Starr Rink. Though the game was close, this one was not in the cards.
In the first 10 minutes of the game, Princeton took three penalties, and the Raiders took advantage of the third opportunity as forward Jenna Klynstra scored at 9:10.
Five minutes later, senior defender and captain Stephanie Denino knotted the score at 1-1. Sophomore forward Danielle DiCesare fed her the puck, and Denino received it just inside the right face-off circle, delivering a hard shot into the upper left side of the Colgate net.
The game was Denino’s first since being sidelined by an injury during Intersession.
With less than two minutes left in the first period, Colgate again pulled ahead by a goal, regaining a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
At 7:30 of the second, the Raiders scored with a man advantage, pushing the lead to 3-1.
At 15:30, senior forward Melanie Wallace cut Colgate’s lead down to a goal as she scored on the Tigers’ only successful power play of the night, with assists by Denino and DiCesare.
DiCesare would have a hand in all three Princeton goals.
With only six minutes left in the third period, Colgate locked in the win with an insurance goal.
Raiders’ forward Katie Stewart blasted a hard shot from the blue line, which freshman goalie Cassie Seguin was able to stop, only to lose control of the puck among a crowd of Colgate players in front of the net.
Forward Evan Minnick sneaked the puck into the net, making the score 4-2.
In the final minutes of the game, Princeton pulled Seguin for the extra attacker, and DiCesare capitalized on the extra-man advantage with only 13 seconds left in regulation.
As head coach Jeff Kampersal ’92 noted, however, the effort was just short of good enough.
“It was a very tough weekend,” he said in an e-mail.
“Against Colgate, we shot ourselves in the foot early by taking three penalties in the first 10 minutes of the game. We eventually tied the game at one, only to give up a game-changing breakaway goal minutes later.”
On Saturday, the Tigers held their own until halfway through the first, when Cornell defender Laura Fortino scored a power-play goal.
The game was comically symmetric, as the Big Red scored once in the first, then added two goals in the second and three in the third.
Sophomore forward Paula Romanchuk led the Tigers with six shots in the loss.
Five different players scored for Cornell in the six-goal win, and goalie Amanda Mazzotta stopped 21 shots for her second-straight shutout. On the Princeton side, sophomore goalie Rachel Weber allowed four goals on 26 shots, while Seguin stopped six of eight.
Kampersal was disappointed with the team’s effort.
“Against Cornell, we competed hard early, but their first goal took the wind out of our sails. From that point on, they dominated us. Our [defensive zone] was porous, and we did not follow our basic defensive principles. It looked like we’ve never been coached before. Our defensive effort was very un-Princetonesque,” Kampersal said.
“The positive is that we have good kids in the locker room who work hard,” Kampersal added. “But hard work is different than achievement. We need to figure that out fast.”
Princeton hopes to return to its winning ways next weekend with home games against No. 1 Clarkson and No. 4 St. Lawrence.
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